Rohingya girls face marriage in camps
ROHINGYA women who fled their homes in Burma are now being beaten and abandoned by their husbands, while young girls are facing increased pressure to marry, aid workers say.
Polygamy, violence against women and forced early marriages are a “growing critical problem” in the cramped refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, southern Bangladesh, ActionAid is warning.
Almost 700,000 Rohingya refugees have fled neighbouring Burma since last August amid reports of extreme violence, forming a total of more than 900,000 displaced people in the numerous sprawling camps.
Many are already traumatised, and now face the potentially catastrophic disruption of the looming monsoon season, which charities fear will increase their vulnerability.
ActionAid is using British donations to run two women-friendly spaces and a centre in the Moinerghona settlement – safe havens where women and girls can socialise, get health checks and, crucially, speak to trained counsellors to process the trauma they are carrying.
The charity has also set up Rohingya women-led committees to let aid workers know what they need to feel safe, such as separate, secure bathrooms and solar lights to guide their way at night. Almost 200 women have already received tailoring training using sewing machines and a further 180 are learning the skill.
Shahanoor Akter Chowdhury, women’s rights and protection coordinator for ActionAid in Cox’s Bazar, said intimate partner violence was “very common” and polygamy another “growing critical problem”, with mothers desperate to secure their daughters’ futures and men being bribed to remarry with the lure of large dowry payments.
But young girls spoken to by the Press Association said they were determined not to marry until they were able to return to Burma, where the dowry would be less.
She said: “The women who talked to us today – four months ago we wouldn’t bring one word out of their mouth. Now they can talk about their problems, their needs, they ask for solutions, they want justice. So they can cry for their demands and I see that as a very positive change.”
Mike Noyes, deputy director of humanitarian policy and practice at ActionAid UK, who has recently returned from the camps, said they were focusing on putting women and girls in control.