Exploring: The Rohingyan Double-Edged Sword

We wanted to provide some insight about events in Bangladesh, where we will be launching our pilot program. One of the most pressing matters for Bangladesh today is the influx of refugees coming into the small nation. Specifically, there have been mass exoduses of Rohingya Muslim, to Bangladesh, since 2017, escaping ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. But before we unpack this, let’s start with the basics.

Who Are The Rohingya?

The Rohingya people are from the Rakhine province of Myanmar. Under the Burmese government, these people have faced decades of oppression and violence: sexual violence, mass killings, withholding of citizenship, arson and more, all carried out by Burmese security forces.

Over 700,000 Rohingya people have fled the brutality and discrimination of their home country. Bangladesh now hosts the largest refugee camp in the world and has openly accepted the Rohingya people, with the aid of humanitarian groups like UNICEF and World Food Program.

So What Does This Mean for Bangladesh?

The problem with supporting such a large group of people is the toll it takes on Bangladesh. Having to accommodate for an extra million people, affects Bangladesh more than it may other nations.

The country already supports overpopulated and impoverished communities, so its effects on the economy, the environment, and public perception are amplified. This all only puts more pressure on the Bangladeshi government, causing people to call into question how they will support an influx of refugees when it struggles to support its own people.

Where The Trouble Begins

One unanticipated part of the Rohingya crisis was how susceptible refugees would be to human trafficking. The country has made efforts and feats to stop the trafficking of Rohingya minors, but there is more to this issue.

Rohingya girls have given personal statements, many sharing that they looked forward to the brothel villages in Bangladesh, as a means of work and survival. One young girl interviewed by PBS News Hour explained how she and other women were beaten by Burmese soldiers, mutilated and “gang raped.”

The brothels granted her a path to escape her present threatening situation. The refugee camps were difficult to survive in, with the limited food supply and lack of available non-criminal jobs. The brothel villages had an in-demand form of employment, sex work, and all the survival necessities to support a fleeting refugee. The life they sought in Bangladesh, and elsewhere, although not nearly humane, still is significantly better than the genocide they face back home in Myanmar.

The Path Between the Lesser of Evils

The women often gain entry into the brothels through coercion and deceit. Tania Rashid of PBS News Hour visited a brothel in the refugee camp run by the Rohingya people and spoke to several women working there.

Women took the work in order to support themselves after being separated from abusive spouses. Innocent and vulnerable girls worked there to earn money for marriages; which were falsely promised to them by traffickers. Girls were lured and trafficked into the industry with promises of other jobs, like garment factory jobs; which is a likely route into Bangladesh’s sex industry. Within their short time in the country, the Rohingya minors and adult women were entangled in this unregulated and predatory industry.

The Bigger Picture

This refugee trafficking issue is not a refugee issue; it is a Bangladeshi issue. The matter exemplifies the fatal future of girls that are vulnerable, poor, abused and uneducated; they are very likely to supply Bangladesh’s sex industry without many other options. This is not an experience exclusive to the Rohingya women.

From a humanitarian perspective, one can see a major problem that should be addressed with a greater focus. Myanmar is greatly responsible for the cruelties that the Rohingya girls are at risk of. However, Bangladesh is responsible well. The poor regulation and compounded by the susceptibility of women, especially young girls, entering the sex industry is an important issue the country should be focus on.

The Rohingya refugees show an internal problem that Bangladesh has. If thousands of Rohingya people have experienced this exposure to unlawful sex work, imagine how it translates to the estimated 140,000 Bangladeshi women and children who already work in Bangladesh brothels.

This a conversation worth discussing and is an issue that deserves urgent attention.

1 Beaubien, Jason. “Rohingya Settle In For The Long Haul, Even As Bangladesh Wants Refugees To Go Home.”
2 Rashid, Tania. “Inside the Bangladesh Brothels Where Rohingya Girls Are Suffering.”
3 Rashid, Tania. “Inside the Bangladesh Brothels Where Rohingya Girls Are Suffering.”
4 UNAIDS. “Sex Workers: Population Size Estimate — Number, 2016.”

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This post was authored by Adejoke Atitebi and edited by the Mai Soli Foundation team