Four Years On: Dehumanisation of Rohingya people continues
Julekha is Rohingya and lives in a refugee camp for Rohingya in Balukhali Area, Cox’s Bazar. © Yusuf Sayman
On August 25, 2017, a campaign of targeted violence was waged against the Rohingya in Rakhine state by the Myanmar military. This was not the first campaign targeting the Rohingya, but it was by far the largest, and led to a mass exodus of more than 700,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh and some to Malaysia.
The hundreds of thousands, who fled the systemic persecution, joined those who had fled to these countries since the 1990’s, following cycles of violence and persecution by the Myanmar authorities. Today, there are approximately 900,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and 154,000 in Malaysia.
Four years on, Doctors Without Borders remain in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Malaysia, driven by a commitment to provide the Rohingya community with adequate access to quality medical care and be a witness to their plight.