Rohingya Forgotten and Stuck In World’s Largest Refugee Camp

HARI SREENIVASAN, CORRESPONDENT: Bianna thanks, Dr. Mohsina Chaklader, thanks so much for joining us. What made you want to go to Bangladesh? What made you want to get involved in this?

DR. MOHSINA CHAKLADER, MEDICAL CHAIR, HUMANITY AUXILLIUM: Yeah, so, so back in 2017, when the genocide started the images of helpless children, women crossing the border and you know, in dire situations, I just couldn’t sleep for many nights. It was very difficult to see that as a mother and as a physician. So I thought, in Canada, we’re privileged and as a physician, it’s my duty to help these people. And hence I just looked into avenues how I can go and volunteer and treat these patients. So, so one, one day I had a discussion with my husband. I kissed him goodbye along with my two year old and four year old. And I was off to Bangladesh for a couple of weeks to see for myself and treat these patients.

SREENIVASAN: No, I think oftentimes at least given these media cycles, we sort of go from crisis to crisis and a lot of people might not recognize or realize that there is still a crisis along the border there between Myanmar and Bangladesh. And you’ve been there multiple times. What were the kinds of medical ailments and, and problems in 2017? And what did you see on your most recent trip?

CHAKLADER: Yeah, so, so the genocide started August of 2017 and I was there around December and at that time, people were still coming. by that time we had about 600 thousand people come into Bangladesh. So with the type of problems I was seeing back then was malnutrition in kids, Kwashiorkor, tuberculosis, and a lot of infection and even graves disease, which we don’t see here as much because of our medication and treatment. And there was a lot of trauma. The first time I went and went to see them, especially mental trauma, like I had a 30 year old woman come in to see me. She was complaining of abdominal pain. And after an exam, I figured out it wasn’t the root cause of her visit. And I started to question her. She fled from Myanmar with her family and six kids. And she was a farmer back in Myanmar. She was quite happy with her small farm and animals. And one day, all of a sudden the Burmese military were there and they were burning her crops and the vegetation. So she and her husband just froze and panicked. And then they, then they started to just grab their kids from wherever the kids were. And, but unfortunately everything happened so quickly. They, they, they witnessed their one year old and three year old sort of burn in their homes while they were trying to gather the other children and, and flee from there. So they were not able to, you know, rescue their one year old and three year old and they just heard their cries. And then she, she traveled on foot for 14 days with her family without any food. And they just had a bit of drink from the stream water. And you know we felt that it was so important not to just treat their physical wounds, but also to treat their mental wounds. So it’s, it’s not easy to forget these stories. So when you come back, you, you want to advocate for them. You want to keep their stories alive because they, they made you see through their stories, a glimpse of the horror they had lived.

SREENIVASAN: So in 2017, when you were seeing perhaps a lot of physical injuries from the trek and the flight from Myanmar now, when, on your most recent trip, the camps are still there. They’re more established. What are the kinds of things that people are coming to your clinics for?

CHAKLADER: Yeah, so Humanity Auxilium has established two clinics. It has started in January to be a formalized clinic before that we were working with the local NGOs. So now we’re seeing these patients have chronic illnesses, diabetes, heart disease, cholesterol, blood pressure, and also a lot of infection still because of the conditions of the camps, lots of skin disease, lot of dental disease, some of the kids have never, ever seen a dentist in their life. So we see all that. And on top of that, the mental anguish, the mental diseases are also there, especially PTSD and depression. For the, excuse me, for the young women and girls, it’s, it’s especially difficult because they not only have to deal with their mental trauma, but they also have to look after their many young children because in Myanmar, they always had a tendency to be pregnant because we are pregnant (08:37):You’re less likely to be raped and less likely to be attacked. So they don’t have much knowledge of both control or anything like that. So a lot of education has to be done as well. And most of my work was also gaining the trust of these people that they can trust us with their health, because they did not trust the health officials back in Myanmar. So any health related problems, they would go to their elders in the community or the midwives. So it’s a lot of education that we do and also training for the local doctors because whenever we go there, we’re either teaching complicated pregnancy related cases or infection related cases so that they can continue our work when we’re physically not there.

SREENIVASAN: How did COVID impact these refugee camps where there’s tremendous population density already?

CHAKLADER: Yeah, so there are about 34 camps and it’s in a very small space of 13 kilometers square only. And in one kilometer square, as of 2020, there were about 46,000 people all squished in. So COVID set off a ripple of panic all over the camp, as well as you know, in the local doctors as to how they were going to manage. We did the outreach program in COVID because in the camps, people were quite afraid of COVID. They did not want to come forth with symptoms because the government had made isolation centers. So if anybody came forth with sym ptoms, they would be sent to the isolation centers. And that’s a total nightmare for the Rohan where, you know, they would be separated from their family, like they would in me and Mar. So what we did, we was, we established four outreach programs where there would be a physician, a Rohan volunteer to speak the language. Our volunteer midwife nurse will actually go into the shelters of two camps, 17 and 20, and they will ask and assess them for symptoms, according to the w H O survey. And because there was no testing back in 2020 when the, when the COVID broke out, if the, if the answered few positive tests that was considered a positive case, and we did education, and we also treated symptomatically with antibiotics and antibiotics. And then we BA went back for follow up. So our organization, our tiny organization did assess more than 80,000 people. And we did more than 6,000 education sessions because we were able to break myths about COVID and also debunk some of the gossip that was going on that, you know, if you drink this water, you can get rid of COVID things like that. So I think people underestimate small organizations, but if your passion dedication is there you know, it’s possible to move mountains.

SREENIVASAN: Give me an idea of what happens in basically a, a, a society where these refugee camps are, where there are hundreds of thousands of people. Most of them are unemployed. Many men in those villages can’t find jobs and they’re not welcome in the surrounded community. So what are the ripple effects to the women and children in these camps?

CHAKLADER: So the women and children, they, they suffer the most. They, they are they were abused back in Myanmar and here they have sometimes abuse from their husbands because the husbands are frustrated. They at least were farmers or had small jobs back in Myanmar. Now they have absolutely nothing to do. Sometimes the local community might employ them to build up a structure or build to fix some toilets in the camps. But these are not permanent jobs that they have. And a lot of the women are widows now. So they’ve lost their husbands and these men tend to marry now two, three times. And so the first wife with their kids are sort of semi abandoned. So there is a lot of mental anguish going there. This time around I was there and we have established a mental health facility for the psychosocial support of these young women and girls. And I interviewed a 13 year old, who was, was married off to her cousin who was already married with kids without her will because the father wanted to make sure before you know, he had many children. So he wanted to sort of give up the responsibility of this young girl, because if it’s, if she’s married off, it’s one less mouth to feed for him. And she, she gets beaten on a daily basis by her in-laws by her husband and her husband’s first wife. So she’s basically used as a slave you know, sexually abused as well as physically. So she tried to run off from her in-law’s place twice to her father’s place, which is in a different camp. There are 34 camps in total, and the camps are quite far apart. So she ran off twice, but she was always sent back to her husband by her dad because you know, he will not you know, have her back in, then there’ll be another mouth to feed because they themselves are in dire condition. So, so what do you say to this 13 year old? I can’t even say, oh, you know, you should just continue your education. Don’t go back to your husband. Because after, after third to fifth grade, there is no education for women. Usually the, the, the parents don’t want to send their girls to school anymore because they’re sort of priming them for marriage. And they think if they get into trouble, they might get a bad name and they will not get married in a good family. But at least with our organization, we have established a safe place for women where women are being taught, how to knit and make bedspreads as well as shawls. And they get a percentage of their income. So at least they have some skill set that they will be acquiring and they will you know, have a little bit of income as well to stand on their feet.

SREENIVASAN: How do you, how do you gain the trust of women and girls in situations like this? I mean, even though you speak the language – you’re from the outside, you’re gonna be able to get on a plane and leave.

CHAKLADER: Yes. Yes. So that’s very important. So in any, in any community, it’s important to get the the local physicians and the local NGOs to be your ally. And we have been unfor, we have been quite fortunate that we have two local NGOs who have been working side by side. And even if we are in Canada, in other parts of the world, by WhatsApp, by telephone communication, by email, we’re always in touch with them. So we have hired Rohingya volunteers, and we give them a salary as well to help us translate. So when you see that you know, a person of your community is working with them, and they’re telling you that, you know, they’re doing good work, that also automatically helps to gain their trust. And in the camps, there are some Rohingya individuals, usually men who are in charge of like 10, 15 shelters, they’re called Majhis. So we have been working with them as well to help us you know, convey the message that we’re there to help them. And this is what we’re doing, and that has helped a lot to gain some of the trust that they have lost from decades of abuse.

SREENIVASAN: So what do you see happening to all of these children that you might see on your repeat visits? I mean, from 2017 till now, are we talking about a lost generation here that aren’t going to school that don’t have any kind of stability or security in their lives?

CHAKLADER: Yeah, so I, I did visit a couple of community schools and their education is very, very rudimentary. They’re taught Burmese English and a little bit of math, but not Bengali because the Bangladesh government doesn’t really want them to integrate because once they learn the language, they might get a job and they might integrate. So they don’t want that. The kids are still hopeful. They hear stories from their parents, how their land was and you know, where they lived and, and their kind of hopeful. And some of them think that this is how life is. I met a very bright 18 year old. The second time I went and he tells me that when he was in Myanmar, he would have to go on a boat for an hour to get to his school. And that also, if it flooded, it was very difficult for him to do that, he would come back. And when he would study, the military would come around. So if it is after 5:00 PM and it’s dark, you cannot have any of the lights on. So his parents will really shut the shutter of their homes. And he will light a small candle and study under that candle light because he was a very bright student and he wanted to be a teacher. So now in Bangladesh, he’s losing hope. Like how do I get further education? At least I was getting some education in Myanmar. So we’re trying to support him from Humanity Auxillium we bought him a laptop to see if he can take some online courses from outside, but that’s also very difficult because the internet situation in the camps is quite difficult. So to answer your question, it’s a dire situation. We don’t know what will happen to these kids. They will have likely very minimal education and maybe some minimal skills that they might acquire. But you know, it’s hard to know what will happen.

SREENIVASAN: You know, sometimes I wonder if you think that the world has sort of forgotten this. I mean, it’s been five years since the genocide images came on TV, it’s really been longer. I mean, at least 10 years, since the tensions between these communities was flaring up, but we have so many different crises today that we’re watching on the news that this is just one that kind of flies under the radar.

CHAKLADER: Yeah, no, I think I, I think the Ukraine war and then other crises all over the world, such as the Yemen or the Syrian crisis as well. So, it seems definitely like, you know, people have forgotten about it. But I think, it’s important to keep their cause alive and to advocate for them because like I said, for generations and generations they have been oppressed, they don’t have a very good advocacy group for them. Although some people are doing quite a bit these days, so it’s important to keep their cause alive because these are hundreds and thousands of people stuck in limbo without any fault of their own. And they, because of their religious belief or the way they look and being a minority, they they’ve been tortured and they’ve lost everything they owned. So it’s very important to keep their cause alive and to keep reminding the world that if, if one, one community suffers, then we all suffer.

SREENIVASAN: Dr. Mohsina Chaklader from Humanity Auxillium, thanks so much for joining us.

CHAKLADER: Thank you so much for having me.