As the Rohingya crisis rages on at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, the most helpless and vulnerable of the victims of Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing operations are the children.
It is indeed a blight on the world’s conscience that hundreds of thousands of children are starving at the border, and suffering from a variety of diseases due to malnutrition.
Bangladesh has been doing its best -- we have welcomed the Rohingya into our side of the border and are providing food and shelter, but the reality is that this is a crisis of such vast proportions that more always needs to be done.
When children are on the verge of mass starvation, it is time for the world to wake up and admit that a humanitarian catastrophe is imminent.
Rohingya families often have to travel on foot for 10 days or longer, with children falling ill from exhaustion and starvation, newborn babies deprived of their mother’s milk, and the lack of any sort of medical attention.
This is no way for human beings to live.
There needs to be more outrage, and more support for the children, who are being punished so cruelly for no reason other than having been born Rohingya.
Some money has come our way from governments around the world, but so far it has been a mere drop in the bucket compared to what is needed.
It should be of the utmost urgency to take care of the Rohingya children, and make sure they have enough to eat -- not just because it is our humanitarian obligation, but also to prevent a wider health catastrophe throughout the region.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
