This World Refugee Day, the Women’s Peace Network reaffirms its solidarity with all refugees, and urges the international community for a comprehensive solution to their plight.
In Myanmar, one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises is exacerbating nationwide by the second. While it is a significant underestimate according to local civil society, some 1.5 million refugees have been reported.
Of them, at least 184,000 have become refugees due to the Burmese military’s 1 February 2021 attempted coup and its ensuing brutalities, including its indiscriminate air strikes on civilians and forced recruitment of youth.
From Thailand to India, none of these civilians is guaranteed full protection from immigration detention, forcible deportation or human trafficking. Recent mass funding cuts to international aid, especially through USAID, have further compromised Myanmar refugees’ already meagre access to shelter, food and clean water, healthcare, education, employment and other basic services and livelihoods in squalid refugee camps and slums.
Combined, these conditions have put refugee women and girls at heightened risk of sexual and gender-based violence, domestic and interpersonal violence, and child and forced marriage without any reliable recourse to justice.
Such international and regional negligence is being acutely felt in Rakhine state, where a “second genocide” is now yielding another exodus of Rohingya. At least 118,000 Rohingya have sought refuge in Bangladesh over the past year following the November 2023 resumption of conflict between the military and the Arakan Army (AA).
The AA’s targeted atrocities – compounded by the junta’s decades of genocidal policies and attacks, and a looming famine – have also forced over 13,000 Rohingya, including women and children, to rely on dangerous sea crossings for their desperate escape.
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To effectively support Myanmar’s millions of refugees, the international community must accept the harsh reality of the country’s multifaceted humanitarian crisis. Solely relying on the ‘goodwill’ of the junta – and, in the case of Rohingya, the AA – for the protection of the very people they are attacking will only prolong the crisis.
Therefore, over four years since the military’s attempted coup and nearly eight years since the 2017 genocide, it is time for bold and principled actions that will directly support refugees, their community and their collective future.
The WPN calls for:
- the full protection of refugees, especially by ensuringtheir asylum and refuge over their detention and deportation
- the immediate and flexible delivery of humanitarian aid to local civil society and diverse women-led groups supporting refugees
- the comprehensive provision of basic services and livelihoods – including formal education, employment opportunities, and mental health and psychosocial support– to the refugees
Ultimately, addressing the root causes of Myanmar’s crisis is critical to ending its decades-long cycle of exodus. Leading up to the historic High-Level Conference on the Situation of Rohingya and Other Minorities in Myanmar this September, actions for victim and survivor-centred justice and accountability must be prioritised in achieving the safe, sustainable voluntary, and dignified return of all refugees to their homeland. – WPN
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
