MP speaks out about trip to refugee camp

IMAGINE if the entire population of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport had no UK citizenship and the army and government decided to drive them out of the UK, murdering, raping and torturing some of them as they did so, all in the space of a few months.

Well that’s what has happened to the Rohingya people from Rakhine Province in Burma, since the end of August this year. Yet very little has been done about their plight.

Prior to August 2017, nearly 200,000 people had fled to Bangladesh. However, the speed and scale of more than 650,000 refugees from an estimated total Rohingya population of 1.2 million since August 25 this year has been unprecedented.

I represent Cardiff Central, the most diverse constituency in Wales. There is a large British Bangladeshi diaspora in Cardiff Central and I had been watching this humanitarian crisis unfold with horror, as had many of my constituents.

I wanted to see the situation for myself, so in November, I visited the refugee camp at Kutupalong in the Cox’s Bazar area of Bangladesh on a fact-finding mission with a small group of parliamentarians, organised by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

Nothing could have prepared me for the shock of Kutupalong. I stood on a hill in the camp in the searing heat and looked out as far as the eye can see.

From where I was standing right to the horizon was a mass of humanity. It’s hard to describe this living hell. Nearly 60% of the refugees are children and many of them have been become separated from their parents.

There is very little food, mainly just rice, and many people are suffering from malnutrition. There’s little or no sanitation. People sleep, cook, eat and defecate in tiny haphazard shelters, most of which are just a small piece of plastic and some canes.

There is very limited medical help and so many of the refugees are seriously injured and traumatised.

I met one man who had been beaten and tortured by the Burmese military and as a result, had spinal injuries and was paralysed from the waist down.

The sexual violence has been widespread and horrific. Women and children I met were clearly traumatised and the fear in their faces is something I’ll never forget. Aid workers are increasingly concerned about the risk of trafficking and sexual exploitation.

The most powerful memory I have of visiting the camp is the young mother who had given birth to her daughter just a few days previously.

She slowly beckoned me into a tent where some of the most obviously severely injured refugees are taken on arrival and unwrapped her baby from some dirty rags on the floor and showed her to me with such pride.

I looked at the baby, struggling to hold back tears. What chance did that child have of any sort of life?

But then I heard about the mothers whose babies had been snatched from them by Burmese soldiers, thrown to the ground, stamped on and then thrown onto fires.

Families in Cox’s Bazar have opened their homes to over 50,000 refugees. But Bangladesh cannot cope alone. It needs concerted international action to provide both immediate help, but also to stop this genocide by the Burmese military and shamefully condoned by the Burmese government.

Three days after I returned from Bangladesh, I met the UK Foreign Office Minister and the Bangladeshi High Commissioner to describe what I had seen and to outline what I thought the UK Government should do. I have followed this up by speaking in Parliament about what I saw and questioning the minister on further action and diplomatic efforts with Burma and UN Security Council members. More aid is urgently needed. Meanwhile, the hard line Burmese military have got what they wanted.

Not just to prevent the Rohingya from having legal status as citizens, but to physically eradicate them from Burma altogether through sheer brutality and force.

The UK and the international community cannot stand by and let this continue.

As well as increasing the amount of aid to the refugees, the UK Government should support a referral for genocide of the Head of the Burmese military to the International Criminal Court.

The UK Government should also push for the EU to implement sanctions against Burma and there should be a UN mandated global arms embargo against Burma.

So what can we do to help? Ask your MP to ask the UK Government to support the requests I have made. If you are able to donate to the relief effort please do whatever you can. Unicef, Save the Children and United Purpose are all raising funds.

My British Bangladeshi constituents and many others across Cardiff have been fundraising through the Bangladeshi Association Cardiff and have raised more than £30,000 to date.

You can help give that newborn baby girl the chance of a future.