CIARAN’S HUMANITARIAN
WEXFORD MAN IS WORKING FOR OXFAM IN BANGLADESH AS A POLICY ADVISOR ON THE ROHINGYA REFUGEE CRISIS. HE TELLS REPORTER ABOUT THE PLIGHT OF THE REFUGEES AND THE HUGE DAILY CHALLENGES FACED IN CAMPS STRUGGLING TO ACCOMMODATE OVER HALF A MILLION PEOPLE
THE plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh is probably not something which invades the thoughts of your average person in Bunclody with any regularity. In fact the sleepy town at the foot of Mount Leinster is world’s apart, figuratively and geographically from the huge sprawling refugee camps which exist on the border of Bangladesh and Myanmar.
A Bunclody man, however, is currently in Bangladesh and in the thick of what is being described as one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory. Ciaran Breen was born and reared in Bunclody. Having finished school he became a fully qualified architect, working from Enniscorthy, before he decided to change his path completely in 2009.
‘I decided I wanted to take a broader scope,’ he said, speak- ing from an Oxfam base in Bangladesh. ‘I decided I wanted to look at how things impact on society and I did an MA in the London School of Economics.
‘Through this I looked at developing countries and how cities operate in developing countries. This led me onto humanitarian work and that’s what I’ve been doing since. I’m currently in Bangladesh as a policy advisor on the Rohingya Refugee Crisis.’
Gaining publicity in Ireland from protests and public showings of solidarity from the likes of Bob Geldof and U2, the crisis has its roots in Myanmar.
In the South East Asian country, the Rohingya people are afforded almost no rights. They are not afforded citizenship of Myanmar. They are not allowed to hold land. They are not granted access to any meaningful form of healthcare. They are considered completely stateless.
Things escalated in August when a militant group of Rohingya attacked police and army posts in Myanmar in protest of the treatment of their people. Retribution was swift and brutal. Military forces began a horrific campaign against the Rohingya, resulting in reports of murder, rape and the burning of villages, stories of which arrived on the lips of the youngest children presenting at the Bangladeshi border in search of shelter. Over 600,000 people have fled across the border from Myanmar and have been graciously taken in by the Bangladeshi government, who Ciaran says are doing everything they can to help the plight of these poor people.
‘Kids are arriving at the camps here extremely malnour- ished and having experienced extreme violence,’ said Ciaran, who arrived in Bangladesh in December.
‘These people are very traumatised and what we at Oxfam are trying to do is, not only take care of their immediate needs such as food, water and medical attention, but to try and improve conditions within the camps and get them some kind of psychological support.
‘These people are very traumatised. Many of them have seen loved ones die. There are cases where children have seen their parents murdered in front of them.
‘Obviously at the moment, the priority is keeping people alive, but that is why we need to keep the pressure on in terms of getting financial aid.’
In terms of conditions, while it may be better than living in complete fear of the brutal rape and murder that is being meted out across the border, the Rohingya are living in quite difficult circumstances in these huge Bangladeshi refugee camps.
‘These camps exist in a space that is probably the size of County Wexford,’ said Ciaran. ‘There are several camps, the largest of which is probably about 3,000 acres. They exist on extremely hilly terrain and the area is prone to a lot of rain, which leads to extremely bad conditions inside the camps.
‘It’s extremely cramped, with over half a million people living inside. At the moment we’re trying to get these people basic medical attention, clean water and simple food such as rice, but there is a great need to introduce a more varied diet and attempt to install things like lighting into the camps.’
‘In the camps there are a number of problems related to the stress these people have suffered in Myanmar,’ he continued. ‘The conditions really don’t help. These people are living on top of one another. They can’t earn a living or go anywhere and they develop negative coping mechanisms. In the camps we have problems with things like women using sex as a mechanism for obtaining food. There have also been instances of sexual violence against women.’
While conditions in the camps are appalling and the situation that these people are fleeing is worse still, Ciaran says that the refugees are proving resilient at the same time.
‘One thing is striking visiting the camps,’ he said. ‘For the most part, people are in good