While the scale and speed of this population movement were unprecedented, this was not the first time the Rohingya had been driven out of Myanmar. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has provided medical aid to the Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh for decades. Their struggles over successive cycles of violence and persecution have long been an underreported crisis.
Originally published on August 23, 2019
Three years after the mass exodus of Rohingya people from Myanmar, their future looks as uncertain as ever. Uprooted from their homeland by a campaign of targeted violence launched by the Myanmar military in August 2017, some 700,000 ethnic Rohingya refugees sought safety just across the border in Bangladesh. They joined thousands of others from the community who had fled earlier episodes of violence and abuse. Today there are more than 860,000 Rohingya living in Bangladesh, many of them in crowded Kutupalong camp—now the largest refugee settlement in the world.
1977
Myanmar, the country then known as Burma, launches Operation Dragon King (Naga Min) in Rakhine state. The Rohingya ethnic minority are considered "illegal" after being stripped of their citizenship, thus beginning a cycle of forced displacement.
1977-1978
Operation Dragon King includes mass arrests, persecution, and horrific violence, driving some 200,000 Rohingya across the border to Bangladesh. The neighboring country opens refugee camps, where MSF provides medical aid. But by 1979, most of the Rohingya are repatriated to Burma. Of those remaining in Bangladesh, some 10,000 people die, the majority children, after food rations are cut.
1989
After a military crackdown that follows the suppression of a popular uprising, Burma is renamed Myanmar. The ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council increases its military presence in northern Rakhine state, and the Rohingya are reportedly subject to compulsory labor, forced relocation, rape, summary executions, and torture. Some 250,000 Rohingya flee to Bangladesh.
1991-1992
MSF provides medical services in nine of the 20 refugee camps established for the Rohingya in southwestern Bangladesh. Food, water, and sanitation in the camps are inadequate.
1992
The scene at Dumdumia camp (above), in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, shows the lack of adequate shelter.
1992
Rohingya refugees arrive in Bangladesh, bringing only what they can carry. The governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar sign an agreement to repatriate refugees, and the camps are closed to new arrivals in the spring. By fall, forced repatriation begins, despite protests by the international community. Over the following years, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya are sent back to Myanmar, and new refugees attempting the journey are denied entry to Bangladesh.
2003
Of the 20 camps that were built in Bangladesh in the early '90s, two remain: Nayapara camp near Teknaf (above) and Kutupalong camp near Ukhia. Living conditions remain dire—a study finds that 58 percent of children and 53 percent of adults are chronically malnourished.
2006
Some 79 percent of the shelters in the two remaining camps in Bangladesh are flooded during the rainy season. The substandard conditions contribute to cases of diarrhea, respiratory infections, and malnutrition. At the MSF therapeutic feeding center serving the makeshift camp near Teknaf, staff take care of an average of 40 severely malnourished children each day.
2009
MSF runs a medical facility in Kutupalong makeshift camp in Bangladesh. Only a small percentage of Rohingya seeking refuge in Bangladesh are officially recognized as refugees. Unrecognized Rohingya refugees are vulnerable to harassment and exploitation.
2016
MSF’s clinic in Kutupalong makeshift camp provides comprehensive medical care to Rohingya refugees and the local community in Bangladesh. The October 9 Rohingya militant attacks on border police in Myanmar’s Rakhine state trigger reprisals against the Rohingya community, bringing a new wave of refugees across the border and an influx of patients to the MSF clinic in November and December.
2017
A Rohingya family arrives at the Bangladesh border from Myanmar. Following Rohingya militia attacks on several police and army posts in Myanmar on August 25, state security forces launch a campaign of horrific violence and terror targeting the Rohingya community. More than 530,000 Rohingya are driven out of Myanmar. The cycle of mass displacement begins again, this time on an unprecedented scale.
2017
A newly arrived Rohingya family shelters in their tent (above) at Unchiparang settlement. Most of the recent arrivals have moved into makeshift settlements without adequate access to shelter, food, clean water, or latrines.
2017
Medical facilities in Bangladesh, including those run by MSF, are quickly overwhelmed. In September, MSF calls for an immediate scale-up of humanitarian aid to the Rohingya in Bangladesh to avoid a public health disaster. MSF also urges the government of Myanmar to allow independent humanitarian organizations unfettered access to northern Rakhine state.
2018
An outbreak of diphtheria rages in the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar. Though diphtheria is covered by the most basic vaccine packages, the deadly childhood disease spreads quickly through the camps in Bangladesh, where most children have not been immunized. MSF treats 6,442 cases from August 2017 to June 2018.
2018
Most of the Rohingya sheltering in Bangladesh have suffered from or witnessed violence, lost family members or friends, or experienced persecution. Many say they’d like to go home, but not until their safety can be guaranteed. Since the beginning of this latest crisis, MSF has made mental health services a priority. From August 2017 to September 2018, MSF teams provided more than 16,000 individual mental health consultations and 18,000 group mental health sessions in Bangladesh.
2019
Between August 2017 and February 2019, MSF teams provided more than one million medical consultations for Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Our teams continue to treat tens of thousands of patients a month. The emergency has become a protracted crisis, with no end in sight.
As of August 2019, two years after the latest exodus, more than 912,000 Rohingya in Bangladesh still live in the same basic bamboo structures as when they first arrived. They face travel and work restrictions, and remain wholly reliant on humanitarian aid. MSF will continue to provide care for the Rohingya and to advocate for greater international efforts to ensure that they have a chance for a better future.
2020
This spring, MSF began preparing for COVID-19 in the world's largest refugee camp, scaling up activities and setting up isolation beds in our projects in Cox’s Bazar district. We rolled out COVID-19 training for all staff, on everything from basic infection prevention and control measures to protocols on managing patients with suspected cases. The UN refugee agency reported the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the camps on May 14. MSF has since treated several patients with COVID-19 and monitored others with suspected cases of the disease. Health workers face a higher risk of contracting COVID-19, and have also come under threat for doing their jobs.
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