FE Report
More than 6,000 unaccompanied and separated Rohingya children living in Cox's Bazar face crippling food shortages and are at increased risk of exploitation and abuse, a study said.
New research by Save the Children suggests that one in two Rohingya children who fled to Bangladesh without their parents were orphaned by brutal violence.
Save the Children Bangladesh office shared the key findings of the study on the occasion of first anniversary of the crisis on Saturday, August 25.
The research involved interviews with 139 unaccompanied and separated children (UASC).
The full assessment results will be released in the coming weeks.
Save the Children called for the perpetrators of these systematic, ruthless and deliberate attacks in Myanmar to be held accountable under international law for their crimes, and also called upon all countries to support initiatives at the UN to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Since August 25, 2017, over 700,000 Rohingyas have arrived in Cox's Bazar, including at least 370,000 children, following a brutal military crackdown. Over a two-month period at the end of last year, the refugee population in Cox's Bazar more than quadrupled.
Child protection workers in the camps had previously thought an overwhelming majority of these children had simply lost contact with their parents or caregivers in the chaos of their journey to Bangladesh-but the research suggests otherwise.
The study found that 70 per cent of children covered by the study were separated from parents or main caregivers by violent attacks; 63 per cent of all children were separated during a direct assault on their village, and 09 per cent as their family attempted to flee to Bangladesh.
Half of the children surveyed (50 per cent) said their parents or main caregivers had been killed in the attacks, leaving them orphaned, with many describing eyewitness accounts of brutal violence.
Save the Children's Country Director in Bangladesh, Mark Pierce, said:
"Twelve months ago, our teams saw children arriving in Bangladesh on their own, so distressed, hungry and exhausted they couldn't speak. We set up spaces for these children to receive 24-hour support while we searched for their families. One year later, it became clear that for many, this reunification will never take place.
He said these children are some of the most vulnerable on the planet, and they have had to carve out an entirely new existence in the camps, without their mother or father, in an environment where they are far more vulnerable to risks like trafficking, early marriage and other forms of exploitation.
Save the Children has reached more than 350,000 Rohingya children in Cox's Bazar in the past 12 months, including a large majority of those who have been orphaned or separated from their parents.
Among those Save the Children supports is 17-year-old Humaira, who fled to Bangladesh with neighbours from her village after her parents were killed in front of her during the August 2017 attacks, the study said.
Her case worker, Rashna Sharmin Keya, said it took her a month, and sessions with a counsellor, before she was able to share her story.
After months of searching, she was finally reunited with her two younger brothers.
To ensure aid agencies' continued vital support to these children, donors need to fully fund the $950 million Joint Response Plan for 2018, the study said.
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