The fire started at about 1 a.m. (GMT1900) at the Kutupalang Rohingya refugee camp, the largest of total 34 camps.

“Around 20 shanties including mosques have been gutted by the fire while the blaze spread to more than one hundred tents,” according to Ukhia News.

No injuries were reported, it added, citing local fire station official Mohammad Imdadul Islam.

An on-duty officer at the Cox’s Bazar District Fire Services office told Anadolu Agency that seven shanties were destroyed while others sustained damage.

“Two units of fire services rushed to the spot on information instantly and doused the fire with the help of Rohingya camp dwellers,” he said.

Rohingya resident Rahmat Karim told Anadolu Agency that more than 20 tents, including camp-based small mosques, were damaged. “Dozens of other close tents have been partly damaged,” he said.

More than 670 makeshift dwellings for refugees at the same camp were damaged Tuesday in a deadly fire.

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According To Iran News, A total of 2,899 crew of a German cruise ship named “Mein Shiff 3” have been quarantined on board in Cuxhaven on Germany’s North Sea coast after one person tested positive for the coronavirus on April 30.

The entire crew is being tested for the coronavirus, and the results will be available on Monday at the earliest.

There are 58 Chinese crew members aboard the ship, and they are all currently in good health conditions, China News Service reported citing comments made by the Chinese Consulate-General in Hamburg.

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The refugees, including 15 women and six children, landed on Bhasan Char island on Saturday and are believed to be from one of several boats stuck at sea, said Tonmoy Das, the chief local government official in Noakhali district, AP reported.

Das said food, doctors, and a team of 10 policemen were sent to the island to take care of the refugees.

An official from Bangladesh’s Refugee Commissioner’s office in Cox’s Bazar district said the office was aware of the development. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Rights groups said recently that hundreds of Rohingya are stranded on at least two fishing trawlers between Bangladesh and Malaysia. The refugees reportedly attempted to illegally reach Malaysia but failed because of strict patrols to keep out the coronavirus.

The United Nations, the British government and Human Rights Watch have recently urged Bangladesh to shelter all the refugees floating at sea, but the government had a lukewarm response, saying all other nations in the Bay of Bengal region should also share the responsibility of sheltering them.

Bhasan Char was previously submerged by monsoon rains but Bangladesh’s government said in January that it was ready to house up to 100,000 Rohingya refugees from the crowded and squalid camps where they’ve lived for years in Cox’s Bazar.

Bangladesh’s navy was involved with a multimillion-dollar project under which flood protection embankments, houses, hospitals, and mosques have been built on the island.

But no refugees have agreed so far to move to the island, and the UN and other international agencies did not show much optimism about the relocation to the newly built island.

More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims came to Bangladesh starting in August 2017, when the military in Buddhist-majority Myanmar began a harsh crackdown against them in response to an attack by insurgents. Global rights groups and the UN have called the campaign ethnic cleansing involving rapes, killings, and torching of thousands of homes. Currently, more than 1 million Rohingya live in Bangladesh.

The Rohingya are not recognized as citizens in Myanmar, rendering them stateless, and face other forms of state-sanctioned discrimination.

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According To Iran News, Authorities in Bangladesh in partnership with the United Nations will expand educational programs for hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya children living in refugee camps who are currently receiving only basic lessons, officials said Wednesday.

The children, who fled with their families from neighboring Myanmar to the camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district, now attend about 1,500 learning centers run by UNICEF that provide basic education, drawing and other fun activities. Under the new program starting in April, they will receive a formal education using a Myanmar curriculum from grade 6 to 9, the UN said in a statement.

Mahbub Alam Talukder, Bangladesh’s refugee, relief and repatriation commissioner, said the government agreed in principle with a proposal from the UN that the Rohingya children be provided with a Myanmar education, AP reported.

 “They will be taught in Myanmar’s language, they will follow Myanmar’s curriculum, there is no chance to study in formal Bangladeshi schools or to read books in the Bengali language,” he said by phone. “There’s no scope for them to stay here in Bangladesh for long, so through this approach they will be able to adapt to Myanmar’s society when they go back.”

The UN said initially 10,000 Rohingya children will be enrolled in a pilot program using the Myanmar curriculum, which will allow them to fit into the Buddhist-majority nation’s national educational system when they return to their homeland.

Mostafa Mohammad Sazzad Hossain, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Dhaka, said a teacher training program is being developed.

“Individuals with appropriate academic qualification and experience will be recruited from both Rohingya and Bangladeshi communities and trained as teachers,” he said in an email.

The decision to introduce formal education was hailed by human rights groups and the United Nations.

 “We believe this is a positive step and a clear indication of the commitment by the government of Bangladesh to ensure access to learning for Rohingya children and adolescents, as well as to equip them with the right skills and capacities for their future and return to Myanmar when the conditions allow,” the UN said.

About 400,000 Rohingya children currently live in the refugee camps, and global rights groups have been demanding that the Bangladesh government allow them to have a formal education.

More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh since August 2017, when Myanmar’s military launched what it called clearance operations in Rakhine state. Security forces have been accused of committing mass rapes, killings and burning thousands of homes. In total, more than 1 million Rohingya refugees currently live in Bangladesh.

Myanmar’s government has long considered the Rohingya to be migrants from Bangladesh, even though their families have lived in Myanmar for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless. They are also denied freedom of movement and other basic rights including education.

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Members of the stateless minority had been swept in Saudi raids against undocumented workers after coming to the Persian Gulf kingdom on passports obtained via fake documents.

Many had spent up to five years in Saudi detention without trial or charge, with some Rohingya detainees developing mental health conditions due to their prolonged detention.

The hunger strike comes after hundreds of Rohingya with Saudi residency papers were released by Riyadh in March after spending years in detention.

Fearing retribution from the Saudi authorities, Rohingya detainees requested their names be changed to protect their identities.

“We have only one demand, and that is our freedom,” said Hasan, a Rohingya detainee who has gone on hunger strike.

“The Saudis are saying that they can deport us to the countries where our fingerprints are registered, but we are telling them that we can’t go back.

“If we are not free then we will go hungry and die.”

Since the beginning of the hunger strike on Saturday, at least six Rohingya inmates have been hospitalized, according to activists and detainees.

Detainees said that the Saudi authorities had begun “mentally torturing” them by taking away their blankets and bedding on Monday.

“The air conditioning is on 24/7, and now they have taken away our pillows and bed sheets,” said Hasan.

“We are sitting on our metal bed frames feeling light-headed and weak from not eating.

“They are trying to make things as uncomfortable as possible to stop.”

Videos posted online by activists also corroborated reports that Saudi authorities had taken away bedding from the Rohingya detainees.

Other detainees described being forced to go into “hot rooms”, where they were told by Saudi police that they would be taken out if they ended their hunger strike.

Sayed, another detainee imprisoned in the Shumaisi detention centre for the last five years, told another detainee that he had been taken into a “hot room”.

“They have put us in a room that is just so hot and telling us to end our hunger strike,” Sayed said in a voice-note that was shared by the other unnamed detainee.

“I don’t know how long we can last. It is unbearably hot, but we have no other choice.”

Inmates added that Saudi authorities had confiscated a number of mobile phones from Rohingya inside Shumaisi since the hunger strike began.

Human rights groups and activists have said that hundreds of Rohingya are being detained indefinitely by Saudi Arabia.

Scores of them have resorted to obtaining passports from people smugglers, often via forged documents, following Myanmar’s ban on Rohingya obtaining Burmese passports.

Many Rohingya locked up in the Shumaisi detention center came to Saudi Arabia on Bangladeshi passports, while others entered on passports from different South Asian countries, including Bhutan, India, Pakistan and Nepal.

Upon arrival, the refugees have their fingerprints taken and registered to the passport they used upon entry. This means scores of Rohingya who have been registered on passports obtained via fake documents now risk being deported to these countries – even if they have never been there before.

Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist with the Free Rohingya Coalition, urged Riyadh to release the detainees who had been locked up without trial or charge.

“This is the third time that 650 Rohingya detainees have gone on hunger strike to demand their freedom,” Lwin said.

“Saudi Arabia has hosted more than 300,000 Rohingya refugees for decades. None of these refugees came to Saudi Arabia with a Burmese passport because citizenship was taken away from the Rohingya in 1982.

“Riyadh must revise their decision and release these Rohingya detainees to show their solidarity and support for thousands of Myanmar’s genocide survivors who are now in Bangladesh.”

A spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that they had been following reports of Rohingya facing indefinite detention in Saudi Arabia after MEE broke the story in October 2018.

“(The) UNHCR expressed its concern and sought confirmation about these reports of detention and deportation of substantive numbers of Myanmar Rohingyas,” Marco Roggio, deputy regional representative of the UNHCR in (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council ([P]GCC) countries, said.

“UNHCR has also repeatedly sought with the Saudi authorities access to any Myanmar Rohingyas in detention for purposes of ascertaining their needs for international protection and the possibility to find solutions to most vulnerable cases.”

Roggio added that UNCHR had made requests to the deputy governor of Mecca in March to discuss the situation of the city’s Rohingya community.

The Saudi Embassy in Britain did not respond to requests for comment at the time of writing.

Earlier this year, UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee condemned Riyadh’s decision to deport 13 Rohingya detainees to Bangladesh.

During a press conference in Bangladesh, Lee urged Riyadh to offer the stateless Rohingya sanctuary, instead of sending them to a third country.

“India and Saudi Arabia must ensure that Rohingya within their borders are protected and that their status as refugees, unable to return to Myanmar, is recognized,” Lee said, after a ten-day visit to the Rohingya refugee camps in southern Bangladesh.

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It was not immediately clear if the boat had originated in Myanmar or Bangladesh, reports noted. The men were immediately detained.

Thousands of Rohingya landed in Indonesia and Malaysia in 2015 after they were left stranded in the Andaman Sea in the wake of a crackdown on smugglers.

Myanmar authorities have recently been stopping scores of boats filled with Rohingya migrants attempting to sail to Malaysia.

According to a report in Reuters, Rohingyas were fleeing cramped refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh, where over 700,000 of them have been huddled after escaping a brutal military crackdown launched last year in Rakhine state.

The United Nations has accused Myanmar’s military of carrying out a brutal crackdown with genocidal intent.

Last month, authorities in Myanmar had seized a boat carrying 93 people fleeing from Rohingya camps in Rakhine state, one of several boats attempting the journey to Malaysia.

Myanmar regards Rohingya as illegal migrants from the Indian subcontinent and has denied them basic human rights.

More than 700,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh last year fleeing an army crackdown in the north of Rakhine State, according to UN agencies.

The latest departures come as Myanmar prepares to take some of the refugees back after agreeing with Bangladesh to start repatriations on Nov 15, despite widespread opposition from global aid groups, who say that the time isn’t ripe for their repatriation.

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 It has been one year since Rohingya Muslims were forced to leave Myanmar following brutal crackdown by Myanmar military with tacit support from the government.

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Monday’s report by a UN fact-finding mission said there was evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity “perpetrated on a massive scale”.

In a session of the UN Security Council late Tuesday several countries — including the United States — called for Myanmar’s military leaders to face international justice.

But Myanmar on Wednesday rejected the remit of the UN mission and its findings.

“We didn’t allow the FFM (the UN Fact-Finding Mission) to enter into Myanmar, that’s why we don’t agree and accept any resolutions made by the Human Rights Council,” government spokesman Zaw Htay said according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

He pointed to the formation of Myanmar’s own Independent Commission of Enquiry, which he said was set up to respond to “false allegations made by the UN agencies and other international communities”.

Zaw Htay also lashed out at Facebook for pulling down the pages of Myanmar’s army chief and other top military brass, saying that it could hamper the government’s efforts with “national reconciliation”.

The social media giant has admitted it was too slow to react to the crisis, which saw its platform — which is wildly popular in Myanmar — become an incubator of hate speech against the Rohingya.

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Driven from Myanmar over decades, Rohingya Muslims have been labelled the most persecuted people on earth. But resilience and ingenuity have led members of the stateless community to forge new lives — everywhere from refugee camps in Bangladesh to the hospitals of Switzerland.

Many fled Myanmar as children. Some have been granted refugee status, others live in the shadows with no legal status or protection.

Half a million of the Muslim minority remain in their ancestral homeland of Rakhine state inside Myanmar — the country that denies them citizenship — in camps or hemmed in by hostile neighbours.

Their history is of persecution. But success stories are being forged and those who have escaped are often willing to give back to those left behind.

– ‘The Yorkshire Boy’ –

A “proud Yorkshire boy”, Nijam Uddin Mohammed arrived with his family in Bradford, in northern England, in 2008 after 17 years in a Bangladeshi refugee camp.

He is 36, or close enough.

“My father, mum, my wife, my brothers, my grandmother, we all have the same birthday party,” he says, joking about the celebration expenses saved.

Nijam learned English and now drives a taxi and works as a part-time interpreter for the National Health Service.

But as the head of the British Rohingya Community charity he says his real calling is advocacy work for his people.

“I hope my children will (also) work for the Rohingya people to free them,” he says.

– The Taekwondo champ –

Freedom is a long way off for the hundreds of thousands of new refugees who have poured into the camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, since last year, driven out by a merciless Myanmar army crackdown.

Their lives are on pause. But Mohammad Selim is refusing to waste time.

Inside his mud walled hut deep in the Kutupalong megacamp, he is teaching eight-year-old daughter Nasima Akhtar taekwondo.

“We’re poor and have never been given respect,” he says. “But after I entered this sport, I learned what respect is… so I’m teaching it to my daughter,” he says.

Nasima, whose shyness evaporates when she trains, wants to follow her dad in competitive bouts.

“When I grow up I want to fight,” she says.

– The Doctor –

Life was a battle from a very young age says Anita Schug, who was forced from Myanmar in the early 1980s but soared through education in Europe to become a neurosurgeon.

“If others worked 100 percent to achieve their goals I had to work at least twice as much as them,” the 37-year-old says from Solothurn, Switzerland.

“I got used to the challenges and as a result I went for the challenging tasks. Neurosurgery, I saw it as a challenge and that’s why I went for it.”

Activism runs in the family, and Anita is now prominent advocate working with the lobby group the European Rohingya Council.

A warping of history by Myanmar’s army has cast the Rohingya as “Bengali” infiltrators to the Buddhist-majority country.

But, says Anita, “there is historical evidence that both Rakhine and Rohingya community existed peacefully side by side for generations”.

– The Peacemaker –

In Yangon, Aung Kyaw Moe, 35, works to diffuse tensions between all communities in a nation cross-stitched by different ethnicities and civil wars.

“We’re a peace-building organisation,” he says from the Yangon office of the Center for Social Integrity.

“My registration says “Bengali”… it’s not something I claim to be. I am from Myanmar,” he says.

“I don’t want young people to go through my life.”

– The Activist –

One of the largest overseas Rohingya communities is in Malaysia, a Muslim country where 75,000 Rohingya have fled.

But few Rohingya — especially women — have access to education, jobs and healthcare, something Sharifah Shakirah is trying to amend.

In a Kuala Lumpur classroom, more than two dozen Rohingya women study languages, crafts, religion and drama.

“I want women to feel like they can do things so they can stand for themselves,” says 25-year-old founder of the Rohingya Women Development Network.

She challenges traditional values inside her community, railing against issues like domestic violence and child marriage. That has prodded a negative reaction from some men, but Sharifah has no intention of stopping.

“They feel that (way) because they’re losing their power, and feel I should be in the kitchen,” she said.

But with Rohingya women on the very margins of an already vulnerable refugee community, Sharifah says her work is too important to be stopped by prejudice.

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