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Rohingya Refugees are Rushing to Escape Monsoon Season
Experts fear a return of the kind of desperation that fed the 2015 boat crisis as the storms hit Bangladesh’s coast. BANGKOK, Thailand – Torrential rains along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border are threatening to make an already grim situation for the nearly 700,000 Rohingya refugees who fled genocidal violence back home even worse as the monsoon storms…
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Rohingya Refugees Face New Threat in Bangladesh camps
COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh – Inside the sprawling Kutupalong refugee settlement, dust swirls around the barren hills where over half a million Rohingya Muslims have taken shelter after fleeing Myanmar’s Rakhine state. “Before this entire area was covered with trees,” said Zahida Begum as she swept her arm across the vista of Kutupalong’s newest camp extension.…
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Life in Bali’s Evacuation Centres for People with Disabilities
A 2017 National Labour Force Survey cited 21 million working age people with disabilities in Indonesia. The University of Indonesia states PwDs are 4.2 per cent of the population. Millions of tourists flock to Bali every year making it one of Indonesia’s most inclusive islands. But it can be an extremely difficult place for the 34,801 disabled…
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Indonesia’s Rohingya Refugees to Resettle to the U.S. or Remain?
In an archipelago with more islands than refugees, Indonesia is looking at ways to provide education, health and housing to its 13,800 registered refugees and asylum seekers. But advocates argue accessing livelihoods is the biggest unmet need. MEDAN, Indonesia – Muhammad Rofiq uses his mobile phone to log into his resettlement case file online, outside of…
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Refugees in Indonesia told assimilate but not settle
JAKARTA, Indonesia – Fatema Barbari tears up as she recounts how police forced her family and 50 other refugees to flee a makeshift camp outside the immigration detention center in Jakarta, Indonesia’s sprawling capital. “They ordered us to leave at night,” Barbari, 39, said as she looked around at her husband and two children at…
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Malaysia’s Rohingya Refugee Women’s Theatre Company
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Inside a YMCA gymnasium, an actress takes the stage and the audience goes quiet. Members of Malaysia’s state security forces are in attendance. The scene set is a family living room. An actress mimes as if to clean. There’s nothing subversive in this scene. A male actor steps on stage looking…
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Malaysia: A Refugee Conundrum
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – “People always ask me, why are you helping refugees when there are people, here at home, who need help? “This is home for refugees”, said Heidy Quah, recipient of the 2017 Queen’s Young Leaders Award for her work co-founding Malaysia’s Refuge for the Refugees. Quah, aged 23 years, founded the Kuala…
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One Rohingya’s struggle to empower women in Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Tucked away upstairs at a shopping plaza in this city’s north end is a small storefront turned classroom for dozens of Rohinyga women and children. The sound of these women reciting English phrases, laughing and the occasional cries of kids can be heard in the stairwell. Its founder, Sharifah Husain, 24,…
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Malaysia: Rohingya must be consulted before repatriation
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – A Rohingya repatriation deal is being hailed as a “first step” by the Bangladesh government, but many argue the plan is premature. Myanmar’s Rakhine state is the ancestral home for Muslim-majority Rohingya, but those living there face discrimination, violence, and segregation. Human rights group Amnesty International calls it a “system of…
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Malaysia: A Rohingya safe haven?
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Inside a television studio a small team of four prepare the daily news bulletin featuring horrendous stories of rape, murder, forced exile, and the lack of an international response to these crimes. But this is no ordinary television news station. It’s fully staffed by Rohingya refugees broadcasting online, sharing news and…
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Adam Bemma 