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Posts Tagged ‘bangladesh’

Plight of the Rohingya

Wednesday, September 27th, 2017

September 27, 2017

In recent weeks, violence and panic have gripped parts of the Southeast Asia nation of Myanmar (also called Burma). In late August, dozens of people were killed in clashes between Rohingya militants and government forces in western Myanmar. Since then, Rohingya villages have been attacked by the Myanmar military and local people hostile to the Rohingya. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have been forced to flee to refugee camps in nearby Bangladesh. The violence has also displaced thousands of other people who live in the area of conflict. Refugee camps are filled beyond capacity, creating dangerously unsanitary conditions, and the camps lack enough food, water, and medicine.

Rohingya Muslim people, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, wait for their turn to collect food aid near Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on September 20, 2017. Credit: © Sk Hasan Ali, Shutterstock

Rohingya people who have fled Myanmar await food outside the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on Sept. 20, 2017. Credit: © Sk Hasan Ali, Shutterstock

Sometimes called “the world’s most persecuted minority,” the Rohingya are a Muslim-majority ethnic group in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Rohingya have lived for centuries in Myanmar, where their community numbers some 1 million people. Most Rohingya live in the northern part of Rakhine State near the border with Bangladesh. Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as legal citizens. Instead, the government considers them to be illegal immigrants. Tensions and conflicts have occurred between Muslim Rohingya and Buddhist and Hindu Rakhine people for decades.

The Myanmar government blames the recent escalation of violence on rebels of the militant Arakan Salvation Rohingya Army (ARSA), who have attacked police posts and been accused—often without proof—of massacring Buddhists. Many outside observers, however, and the Rohingya themselves, say the ARSA attacks are largely a response to a government campaign to drive the minority group from the country. They accuse the military and Buddhist mobs of beating and killing Rohingya civilians and burning their villages. The government claims that it is targeting only ARSA militants—it even says the Rohingya are burning their own villages. A United Nations (UN) human rights official estimates that as many as 1,000 people have died in the recent violence, most of them Rohingya. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticized for her lack of response to the Rohingya crisis, and the truth behind the violence remains unclear.

Migrants sit on their boat as they wait to be rescued by Acehnese fishermen on the sea off East Aceh, Indonesia, Wednesday, May 20, 2015. Hundreds of migrants stranded at sea for months were rescued and taken to Indonesia, officials said Wednesday, the latest in a stream of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants to reach shore in a growing crisis confronting Southeast Asia. Credit: AP Photo

Myanmar Rohingya refugees crowd a boat off the coast of Indonesia. Credit: AP Photo

After Burma won independence in 1948 (the nation changed its name to Myanmar in 1989), the government acknowledged the citizenship of the various Muslim groups living within the country. In 1962, however, a new military government took over, and it refused to recognize the Rohingya as citizens. Since then, Rohingya have consistently been denied many rights and services by the government. In 2012, rioting broke out between Rohingya and Rakhine Buddhists. More than 140,000 Rohingya fled that violence, and many thousands have since left each year, seeking refuge in Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, or Malaysia. The current plight of the Rohingya has sparked protests in many Muslim-majority nations and other places around the world.

Tags: aung san suu kyi, bangladesh, myanmar, rohingya
Posted in Current Events, Government & Politics, Military Conflict, People, Race Relations, Religion | Comments Off

Migrant Crisis in Asia

Wednesday, May 20th, 2015

May 20, 2015

Government officials from three Southeast Asian countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand—met today in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, and agreed to stop turning away migrant ships from their coasts. At least 3,500 migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar have come ashore in one of the three nations over the last few weeks, but some 7,000 more migrants are thought to be still adrift at sea. The migrants are in distress from their long journeys and many of them are dehydrated and malnourished.

Migrants sit on their boat as they wait to be rescued by Acehnese fishermen on the sea off East Aceh, Indonesia, Wednesday, May 20, 2015. Hundreds of migrants stranded at sea for months were rescued and taken to Indonesia, officials said Wednesday, the latest in a stream of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants to reach shore in a growing crisis confronting Southeast Asia. Credit: AP Photo

Migrants wait to be rescued by fishermen off the coast of Aceh, Indonesia, May 20, 2015. Hundreds of migrants stranded at sea for months were rescued and taken to Indonesia, officials reported, the latest in a stream of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants to reach shore in a growing crisis confronting Southeast Asia. Credit: AP Photo

Refugees from Bangladesh are mostly economic migrants seeking jobs. The migrants from Myanmar, however, are Rohingya Muslims, a group that has long been persecuted in Myanmar. Rohingya, even those from families who have lived in Myanmar for generations, are denied citizenship in the predominantly Buddhist nation and have few rights there.

The current migrant boat crisis in Southeast Asia began a few weeks ago. Previously, migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar had traveled by sea to Thailand and then overland. Thailand recently cracked down on this overland traffic, and now smugglers are sending migrants exclusively on sea routes. Often these human traffickers abandon the migrants if a ship founders. Navies from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand have been turning away the boat people at their shores and have sometimes towed stricken boats to the shores of other nations.

The agreement to permit migrants to enter the host nations by sea solves a humanitarian crisis in the short run. Eventually, however, the solution lies in helping Bangladesh to become more economically sound and pressuring Myanmar to recognize and stop persecuting the Rohingya population living in its borders.

 

Other World Book articles:

  • Immigration
  • Myanmar (2014-a Back in time article)

 

 

 

Tags: bangladesh, boat people, indonesia, malaysia, myanmar, rohingya, thailand, unauthorized immigrants
Posted in Current Events, Government & Politics, People | Comments Off

Factory Fire in Bangladesh Kills Eight

Thursday, May 9th, 2013

May 9, 2013

Another tragedy struck the garment district of the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka last night.  Eight people were holding an after-hours meeting in a garment factory when a fire broke out. All eight people died in the fire, having been overcome by toxic smoke from burning acrylic fabric.

Garment workers at a factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh (© Liba Taylor, Panos Pictures)

Fabric and the lint it creates are both highly flammable. A fire in a garment factory has a tremendous amount of fuel and can burn through the structure very quickly.  Such fires are even more deadly when unsafe industrial practices are followed. Escape doors are often locked to prevent young workers from leaving the factory, or stairways are blocked with garments.  Such was the case in the deadly fire that killed 112 Bangladeshi workers in 2012.  Similar problems led to the deaths of 260 Pakistani workers in factory fires in Karachi and Lahore in 2012.

The latest fire in Bangladesh comes as bodies are still being recovered from the collapse of an eight-story garment factory in Dhaka. The collapse, on April 24, occurred in a factory loft that had had three illegal stories added to a five-story building. The day before the building collapsed, large cracks appeared in the structure. The owner and manager opened the factory the next day despite these structural problems. When large generators came on during a power outage at the factory, the vibration caused the factory to collapse. Two weeks later, the death count from the factory has risen to more than 900 people, making the Dhaka collapse the most deadly accident to ever occur in the garment-trade industry.

Since the collapse, the Bangladeshi government has closed 18 garment factories for failing to meet work and safety standards. The country pledged to inspect every factory in Bangladesh as part of a safety initiative. Much of the clothing made in Bangladesh is exported to Western Europe and North America, so Western brands that were manufacturing their clothing in Bangladesh are feeling pressure to become more active concerning industrial safety on behalf of the workers who make their fashion.

Other World Book Articles:

  • Bangladesh 2012 (Back in Time article)
  • International trade
  • Safety
  • Sweatshop
  • Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Tags: bangladesh, death count, dhaka, fabric, fire, garment district
Posted in Current Events, Working Conditions | Comments Off

Death Toll from Factory Collapse in Bangladesh Continues to Rise

Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

May 6, 2013

The number of people killed in the collapse of an eight-story building in Bangladesh has grown from more than 100 to at least 650. The building, which housed multiple garment factories and thousands of workers, collapsed on April 24 in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. More than 1,000 of the estimated 3,000 people working in the industrial loft were injured. Authorities stated that the number of people confirmed as dead was 433, with 149 people still missing, likely still trapped under the rubble.

Women working in an apparel factory in Dhaka. (© Liba Taylor, Panos Pictures)

Initial reports stated that the owners of the five factories in the building ignored a police order on April 23 to evacuate after deep cracks in the walls were detected. Later reports stated that the building’s owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, had told tenants the building was still safe. Rana, now perhaps the most hated man in Bangladesh, had been on the run after the tragedy, but he was found near the Indian border and helicoptered back to Dhaka. He has been arrested and is expected to be charged with negligence and illegal construction—Rana had no permit to add the top three floors to the structure.

Clothing is the leading export for Bangladesh—apparel exports in 2012 totaled around $18 billion. Bangladesh is second only to China in apparel exports. Many of the clothing exports from Bangladesh are for western retailers, including Walmart and Gap. Costs of manufacturing garments in Bangladesh are dramatically lower, but western companies can become associated with tragedies like the one in Dhaka last week and sully their reputation.

The lower costs of garments made in Bangladesh is directly related to labor. Bangladesh has some of the lowest wages in the world. When the newly elected pope, Francis, learned this week that many of the workers in Bangladesh earn only about $40 a month, he claimed “This is slave labor.” In addition to low wages, the country has very lax regulations for working conditions. Six month before the factory collapse, more than 100 people died in a fire that swept through a garment factory in Dhaka.

 

Additional World Book articles:

  • Labor movement
  • Sweatshop

 

Tags: bangladesh, clothing, death count, dhaka, fabric, factory, fire
Posted in Business & Industry, Current Events, Working Conditions | Comments Off

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