‘Flying news’ Humanitarian media counter Rohingya refugee rumours
PHNOM PENH: As aid workers rushed to vaccinate Rohingya refugees against measles earlier this year, rumours swirled through the overcrowded camps in Bangladesh – the injections would make women sterile and convert children into Christians.
The anecdote, included in an August report from the United Nations children’s agency, Unicef, illustrates how the refugees, who have fled Myanmar, are vulnerable to misinformation, “with little or no access to television, radio, or other media”.
In response, humanitarians are trying innovative projects to counter rumours – translated as ‘ flying news’ in the Rohingya language – and to let refugees know how to access healthcare and bolster their shelters against storms, among other advice.
More than 900,000 Rohingya, an ethnic and religious Muslim minority in Myanmar, live in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district, the vast majority in camps, according to Unicef.
About 700,000 of them arrived in the four months after deadly attacks by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar security forces in August 2017, which were followed by military operations that the United Nations and rights groups said targeted civilians.
Myanmar has denied most of the allegations.
Aid agencies struggled to accommodate the influx of people, and a year on, the densely-populated camps remain vulnerable to storms that could strike during the cyclone season in October and November, bringing floods and disease.