(Crux. Nirmala Carvalho).
MUMBAI, India – A leading Catholic aid agency says the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are “forgotten.” Caritas Internationalis General-Secretary Alistair Dutton recently visited the population last week, and thanked the Bangladesh government for supporting the Rohingya for so many years. Most of the Rohingya at the Bangladesh camps have arrived from Myanmar since August 2017, when the military began conducting clearance operations after a series of rebel attacks in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. The Rohingya are Muslims and have long faced discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, including being denied citizenship since 1982. The military coup in Myanmar in February 2021 further heightened their vulnerability. The population density of the camps is staggering: About 103,600 per square mile, more than 40 times the average population density in Bangladesh as a whole – and it is one of the most crowded countries on earth. Refugees live in side-by-side plastic huts, each just a little larger than 100 square feet, and some holding a dozen residents. “I am profoundly moved by the hospitality and enduring support that the Bangladesh government has shown for Rohingya refugees for the past seven years,” Dutton said.