Rohingya migrants; Wake up America

Street Rose 1(Street Beggar) In Chittagong city
Imran Hassan, Age 4 years
Mother’s name - Anu Foir
Buthidong......Born in Tal, live in Tal, Near refugee camp,Teknaf, Bangladesh.

Street Rose 2 (Street Beggar) In Chittagong city
Md. Ilias, Age 4 years
Mother’s name Anjuman Ara
Father’s name Abu Samad
Naitad Dil,Maungdaw, Arakan, Myanmar.


Picture : Faisal Alam

Old Rohingya woman, suffering on her leg last one year. Without family to care for her and an unrecognized status that makes her ineligible for humanitarian aid. ( Faisal Alam )

Rohingya migrants

The article "Traumatized Rohingya flee squalid life in Bangladesh" (Feb. 15) leaves out some important background necessary for understanding the plight of the Rohingya.

In the early 1990s, over 250,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar to Bangladesh as result of intensified persecution by the Myanmar authorities. Over the course of the years, most of these refugees have been repatriated back to Myanmar, voluntarily and with the agreement of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). Those who refused to be repatriated, about 20,000, are in the UNHCR supervised camp, which the article calls the "official" refugee camp, where conditions are basic, but liveable.

Because such a large percentage of the original Rohingya refugees went back home, the Bangladeshi and Thai governments feel justified in denying refugee status to subsequent arrivals from Myanmar, calling them economic migrants. These are the people living in squalid, sub-human conditions in Bangladesh and being treated in an undisputedly brutal manner in Thailand.

While these governments' justification for denying refugee status is ultimately questionable, this unfortunately is not the first case like this. Nevertheless, even in the unlikely situation that the Rohingya are shown to be economic migrants, their treatment by the Bangladeshi and Thai governments violates standards set by international human rights accords.

While the article is correct in describing the Rohingya's desperate situation, it does exaggerate the negative response of the international community. Small numbers of Rohingya have been resettled through UNHCR in Canada, New Zealand and Britain, with the expectation that more will follow.

Bruce Leimsidor, Venice Professor of Immigration Law Ca' Foscari University Former consultant to UNHCR on resettlement

Wake up America

In my French language class in Geneva, there are students from Ukraine, Russia, Holland, Germany, Slovakia, Poland, Brazil, Albania, Cambodia, Lithuania, and a couple of other countries. I am the only American. When we did an exercise in which we suggested stereotypes about each other's countries, we had difficulty with all the countries except the U.S. My classmates stereotypes about Americans were not kind.

It was equally disturbing to get home and read David Brooks's column, "I Dream of Amsterdam" (Views, Feb. 18). It's discouraging to imagine that Brooks really believes that an appropriate definition of today's America is "a culture slowly refining itself" because nearly as many Americans would prefer to live in a community that has a Starbucks as one that has a McDonald's.

Brooks concludes by suggesting that Americans "still have a clear vision of the good life" despite the evidence he provides that the "good life" entails a car-dependent, overly indulgent, materialistic society.

It's time to reverse the ugly American stereotype and replace it with something a little more positive.

Patrick Mattimore, Gex, France

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/20/opinion/edlet.php