A top American diplomat who has just returned from their trips to Myanmar and Bangladesh to have a firsthand assessment of the ground realities about the Rohingya refugee crisis on Tuesday said that they were shocked by the situation there and the scale of refugee is immense.
“What we saw in the camps was shocking. The scale of the refugee crisis is immense,” Simon Henshaw, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration told reporters at a news conference.
He along with the State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert recently travelled to Bangladesh including a trip to the refugee camps in Cox Bazaar. More than 600,000 people displaced from their home since August 25th,”
“The conditions are tough. People are suffering. Many refugees told us through tears accounts of seeing their villages burned, their relatives killed in front of them. It was tough to take. Some recall being shot as they fled,” he said.
Despite the trauma, many expressed a strong desire to return to their homes in Myanmar, provided their safety, security and rights could be guaranteed, Henshaw said as he and Nauert underlined the American appreciation for the generosity and commitment from the government and people of Bangladesh.
On her first ever visit to Bangladesh, Nauert, a former journalist herself have her firsthand account of the refugee crisis.
“Seeing some of the refugees who had crossed the border firsthand; we went to the border one day. Saw the area where they have walked from Bangladesh over to Myanmar,” she said. The day that they were there, about 2,000 crossed the border earlier in the day, she said, adding that there were aid groups then picked up some of those who were considered or appeared to be the most physically vulnerable.
They were then brought to a smaller refugee camp which held a few thousand people. “I watched as some of these women, elderly men, and children climbed off the bus. Literally the most vulnerable. Some of them had no shoes, just a pot where they would put water, once they could get water,” the spokesperson said.
Nauert said one of the women had a very small child, “maybe a month old or so, who looked close to death”. Elderly men and women who had to be literally carried off the bus. “We watched as our colleagues, our partners at the International Community of the Red Cross took incredible care of them with such compassion. I think that baby ended being OK. They were able to get that baby over to a makeshift hospital of sorts,” she said.
The State Department Spokesperson said she met Bangladeshi officials too who she said are doing a great job in taking care of their neighbors. “They've opened their hearts. They've opened their wallets, imagine more than 600,000 to cross their borders, putting them in camps. It's not where these people want to be of course, in their camps; they'd rather be home. But at least they're safe for now,” she said.
Responding to questions, Henshaw said during the visit to these camps he saw evidence of atrocities. “I'm not an expert, but what I saw was shocking. I saw evidence of atrocities,” he said. The State Department he said would review his reports and that of the others to make a determination with regard to any ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.
Humanitarian partners, including UN High Commissioner for Refugees, International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, the Organization for Migration, the UN World Food Program, and the United Nations Children's Fund, are all working together to provide emergency assistance to these individuals.
“But the situation requires a lot more work. The U.S was one of the first to pledge funds to support international organizations in the crisis, and our commitment has been followed by generous contributions from other donors,” he said.
“However, more is needed. The US remains committed to addressing the needs of those impacted by the crisis, and calls on others including in the region to join us in our response,” Henshaw said.
According to Henshaw, the Myanmar government appears to be committed to start a repatriation program, but it was in the early stages.
“It is very important to us that that program not only creates safe conditions so that refugees will want to return voluntarily. But also assure that refugees go back to their villages and land, that their houses be restored in areas that the villages were burned and that political reconciliation takes place,” he said.
