Rohingya children carry toll of violence, displacement скачать в хорошем качестве

Rohingya children carry toll of violence, displacement

(22 Sep 2017) An estimated 421,000 Rohingya have left their homes and arrived in Bangladesh over the past three weeks, fleeing violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state. Mohammed Shoaib is one of them. By age 14 the young Rohingya Muslim boy has seen more than most people see in a lifetime. He describes seeing his father shot as he and his family fled towards the mountains. After the firing stopped they came back to their village and found their father dead. They hid in the forest and walked for three days to reach the safety of Bangladesh. Ethnic Rohingya have faced persecution and discrimination in majority-Buddhist Myanmar for decades and are denied citizenship, even though many families have lived there for generations. Children make up about 60 percent of the people that have poured into Bangladesh over the past four weeks. Many of Rohingya refugees are living in makeshift shelters while aid agencies struggle to cope with the crisis. The UN's child rights agency, UNICEF, has so far counted about 1,400 children who have crossed the border without their parents. These children have seen family members killed and homes set on fire. And they have endured dangerous journeys through forests and on rickety boats. Escaping to Bangladesh has meant safety from the violence in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state. But in the refugee camps in Bangladesh, tens of thousands of strangers live cheek by jowl in normally uninhabitable places which are hardly the safe havens that nurture a childhood. Child refugees face many dangers, including separation from their families, trafficking, servitude, and abuse. Hunger is a constant and most children have to beg at some point if they are to eat. And to do that they have to leave their tents. Their parents, who are simply too overwhelmed and impoverished themselves, cannot chaperone them. UNICEF has set up what the agency calls "Child Friendly Spaces," within the camps. These are spaces where children can be around each other, where they can play and sing and have books read to them. In a small room that was built just a week ago in this refugee camp happy faces abound, with balloons and drawings hung around the walls and ceiling. But the children are all too aware of the terrors they have witnessed and aid agencies like UNICEF and Medecins Sans Frontiere (MSF) say they're barely scratching the surface when it comes to addressing their mental and physical well being. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...