Bangladesh blocks education for Rohingya child refugees, says Human Rights Watch

Date:

Yangon (Reuters) – Bangladesh is blocking hundreds of thousands of Rohingya children from accessing meaningful education, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday, urging authorities to lift restrictions on schooling in refugee camps.

In a report called “Are we not human?”, Human Rights Watch accused Bangladesh of violating the rights of 400,000 school age children who have fled Myanmar and are currently living in the Cox’s Bazaar refugee camps.

“Depriving an entire generation of children of education is in no one’s interest,” Bill Van Esveld, associate childrens’ rights director at Human Rights Watch told Reuters. “The international community needs to act and demand that Bangladesh and Myanmar change course.”

More than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh since a 2017 crackdown by Myanmar’s military, which followed attacks by Rohingya insurgents.

The Human Rights Watch report said Bangladesh had banned Rohingya refugees from enrolling in schools outside the camps or taking national exams and also barred U.N. agencies and foreign aid groups from giving formal accredited education.

It accused Myanmar of not agreeing to recognise the use of its school curriculum in the camps.

Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission Chief Mahbub Alam Talukder said it was untrue that children in the camps were not being educated and that there were 4,000 learning centres in the camps.

“Rohingya will have to go back to Myanmar,” he told Reuters. “They are not our citizens and we can’t allow them to use our national curriculum.”

The Myanmar government did not respond immediately to a Reuters request for comment.

Share post:

Related

Latest

For Kuwait’s new emir, Saudi ties are seen as key

Kuwait (Reuters) - Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah was named...

Pope Francis deplores Israeli killings of civilians at Gaza church

Vatican City (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Sunday again...

Palestinians must find new path from Israeli rule after war, top official says

Ramallah (Reuters) - Immediately after Israel's war in Gaza...

Israel says it struck Hezbollah sites after attacks from Lebanon

Jerusalem/Beirut (Reuters) - Israel said on Sunday it had...