Emmaus International supports the Rohingya minority displaced in Bangladesh

Emmaus International has just launched an appeal for solidarity to all its members in order to help the Rohingya population suffering persecution in Burma.

The serious violence perpetrated in recent months by the Burmese army and extremist Buddhist militia against the Rohingya minority has forced hundreds of thousands of people into exile in neighbouring Bangladesh. Currently, 700,000 exiles are gathered at the border between the two countries, living in intolerable conditions.

Faced with this tragedy, Emmaus International is appealing to the whole movement for solidarity. In recent months, the Bangladeshi organisations Thanapara Swallows and Pollyunnon Prokolpo, who are members of Emmaus International, have sent several people to the east of the country to investigate the situation of exiles in the makeshift camps.

These efforts have been supported by the organisation Gono Shastho Kendro (GSK), which has been active in the camps for several years, distributing food, building accommodation and running projects to provide access to drinking water and sanitation.

Based on these visits to the refugee camps, Emmaus International and GSK have established a priority: to distribute fortified food to pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, children and elderly people. Each family receives 1kg of food per day, which is not enough.

Our movement’s solidarity will make it possible for a nutrition programme to be developed to provide for 2,000 people over six months in three camps where GSK is already active: Putibonia, Balukhali and Kutupalong.

The support of Emmaus International’s member groups will enable this organisation to purchase the ingredients it needs to produce fortified food itself, which it can then distribute to the most vulnerable exiles.Emmaus International champions access to fundamental rights for all.

It is supporting this field action – possible thanks to the solidarity shown by our movement’s members – to provide for the fundamental needs of 2,000 people, and enable them to survive.

As a supporter of the right to the free movement of people and access to universal citizenship, we strongly denounce the statelessness imposed on the Rohingyas by the Burmese regime, a condition that denies them access to their fundamental rights.