Lucky Karim Briefs Member States at a UN High-level Conference on the Rohingya Muslims & Other Minorities

On September 30, Refugees International Fellow Lucky Karim briefs the UN High-level Conference on the Situation of Rohingya Muslims & Other Minorities in Myanmar during the United Nations General Assembly.

Full remarks below.

Madam President, Excellencies, Member states, UN Agencies, International organization, Civil Society.

I’m deeply honored to be representing my community along with my three other Rohingya colleagues here.

In August, 2017, on a Sunday evening at 4pm, one week before the Eid Festival, when I was only 14 years old, my family and I were forced to flee my home in Rakhine State, Myanmar. We managed to cross the nearest border of Myanmar into Bangladesh, we collapsed on the ground in a field packed with thousands of other injured and terrified people. Within weeks nearly one million people became refugees in the “world’s largest refugee camp” in Cox’s Bazar Bangladesh; I lived there for six years, until December of 2022. The violence committed against us in 2017 was the culmination of a decades-long process of genocide, a process that continues to this day.

Today, I want to discuss the conditions faced by our people and share recommendations and requests I hear from my community. However, I also want us to recognize that there is a long road ahead. We know our goal: to return to our homeland safely and with rights. But how do we get there? We must carefully consider each step along that long road to fulfill our goal. We cannot shy away from asking hard questions about immediate, medium, and long-term needs, and we should be humble enough to recognize that we have not yet found the answers. But we Rohingya ourselves are best placed to find solutions for our future, with support from the international community.

I first want to thank Bangladesh for initiating this conference. Every refugee is deeply grateful to the Bangladesh government and its people for providing us with refuge. Thankfully, Rohingya voices were finally included in formal conversations about our own fate for the first time at a Stakeholders’ Dialogue in Cox’s Bazar last month. The interim government has also shown openness to allowing greater self-reliance as we continue to shelter in the camps.

But we have also suffered deeply in the dangerous and over-crowded camps. Because of restrictions on livelihood opportunities, we are largely dependent on food rations provided by the UN. A lost generation of Rohingya – people just like myself – have had zero formal education the last eight years. Our bamboo and tarpaulin shelters are in disrepair. Health services are barely enough to address the primary needs. Though security has improved this year, safety remains a major concern: after forcibly recruiting hundreds of young people to support the Myanmar military’s fight against the Arakan Army last year, the armed groups remain powerful in the camps, committing abductions, extortion, and stifling Rohingya civil society.

These conditions – and conditions in Rakhine – have forced thousands of women and children to risk their lives by fleeing to neighboring countries like India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand in the hopes of a better life. Many died en route while others faced arrest or pushbacks. Those lucky enough to arrive at their destinations are not welcomed or recognized as refugees.

And this was the situation even before massive decreases in humanitarian assistance and tens of thousands more Rohingya people fled Rakhine since the beginning of last year, bringing the camp population to 1.3 million people, more than half women and children.

Earlier this year, I became the first resettled Rohingya to return to the camps in Bangladesh and I returned again last month The community members I met shared with me how aid cuts are impacting them: healthcare facilities have closed, recent arrivals from Rakhine state must take shelter in family members’s already cramped huts. And Rohingya volunteers have lost their jobs and the stipends that helped to meet the basic needs of their families.

Excellencies, almost the entire Rakhine State is now under control of the Arakan Army, one of the most successful armed groups in the history of Myanmar. But the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine State is now dire. Donors, the UN, and civil society are not allowed to operate within the state to provide humanitarian aid to the remaining members of the Rohingya community or other minorities.

The conflict situation is equally concerning. The AA’s control includes Maungdaw and Buthidaung, two large Rohingya-majority cities that were badly burned after recent conflict between the Arakan Army and the military. Hundreds of Rohingya were recruited by both groups and used as human shields to support their fights against one another. Rohingya were also told to leave their homes by the Arakan Army in the middle of the night in the rainy season; shortly after they left, their villages were burned. Throughout the conflict, many women were raped; their husbands, brothers, and fathers, who tried to protect them were killed in front of them by the Arakan Army. Other men were arrested by the Arakan Army, so it was mostly women and children fleeing their homes in search of safety. Many of them managed to arrive at the river between Bangladesh and Myanmar, where they waited for days without water or food. It was here that they were bombed by airstrikes, with many killed.

The military’s genocide against us has been systematic for decades. It is a process. Rohingya have been refugees to Bangladesh numerous times, even before 2017, and we keep going back and forth to Myanmar, and it’s never been sustainable. A sustainable solution must be found within Rakhine State and within Myanmar.

Excellencies, all of the refugees I spoke with on my recent trips to Bangladesh had a lot of questions about their lives. What might their future look like? When can they go back home? It broke my heart to say goodbye without a clear answer. We know the ultimate solution to the Rohingya crisis: we need voluntary, safe, and dignified repatriation to our homes in Myanmar. But how do we get there? I do not have all the answers, but I do want to pose some additional questions:

How do we prepare for repatriation when people in Rakhine State are starving, suffering from the impacts of conflict, and still trying to flee?
How do we prepare for political solutions in Rakhine State if we do not have a counterpart willing to engage in conversations about our future?
How do we prepare for peaceful coexistence with other communities in Rakhine State given all of the trauma we have suffered?
How can Rohingya build political power without a strong, representative civil society, when we have little authority to make decisions, and when most in Myanmar view our suffering as an afterthought amidst on-going conflict across the country?
How do we do any of these things if we do not have food to eat or shelter over our heads?

Excellencies, amidst many competing crises, we are concerned that our plight will fall by the wayside. But based on what I have heard from Rohingya – in Rakhine, recently arrived from Myanmar, in the camps in Bangladesh, from diaspora, and from my own lived experience – the Rohingya community would like to play a leadership role in finding a solution for ourselves; we would like friends in the international community to play a supporting role by:

For the more than one million refugees in the camps in Bangladesh, donors and the host government must: ensure the basic rights and needs of refugees and host populations in Bangladesh and elsewhere in the region are met, including by providing formal, quality education for Rohingya that follows the Burmese curriculum: ensuring access to livelihood opportunities: ensuring justice and accountability mechanisms, ending arbitrary detention of refugees: refraining from refoulement of Rohingya back to Myanmar.
For the Rohingya in Rakhine State, Myanmar, donors, and the international community must: provide cross-border aid into Rakhine State, ensuring humanitarian actors can operate freely and address the crisis facing Rohingya and other ethnic minorities: and pressing authorities to allow internally displaced people to return to their homes safely and without any restrictions.
For all Rohingya who seek to return in safety and dignity to our homeland, countries of influence must: support the Rohingya to achieve our goal of a voluntary, safe and dignified repatriation to our homes in Myanmar and to facilitate the broad-based participation of Rohingya in political dialogue regarding our future in Myanmar.

On behalf of the Rohingya community, I thank and appreciate all donor countries, all stakeholders, member states, UN agencies, host governments, for your generosity, for your continued support, solidarity, and attention. I call on the international community to use this conference as a first step towards the goal of safe and sustainable returns, and to continue directly engaging with us in finding a solution for us. I really hope you all implement these recommendations and take actions immediately, until everyone is safe in Myanmar.