“Welcome to Bhasan Char,” read a banner as the refugees walked off the jetty on the island…

As a Bangladeshi naval ship anchored off a remote Bay of Bengal island, some of the Rohingya Muslim refugees aboard clapped in anticipation of starting a new life on a piece of land that did not even exist two decades ago.

Carrying poultry and sacks of belongings, they are part of a second group of about 1,800 Rohingya that Bangladesh moved on Tuesday from cramped refugee camps on the mainland to the low-lying island despite opposition from rights groups.

“Welcome to Bhasan Char,” read a banner as the refugees walked off the jetty on the island, nearly as big as Manhattan. Navy trucks and tractor trailers took them to multiple rows of concrete houses with their pinkish-red painted tin roofs.

A Reuters photographer was among a team of journalists given rare access to the island that is about three hours from the nearest port in Chittagong, and is fully exposed to nature’s vagaries in a country with a tragic history of deadly storms.

Bangladesh says it has spent more than $350 million of its own money to ready housing and other infrastructure to voluntarily move some 100,000 Rohingya to the island in an effort to ease overcrowding in camps near the Myanmar border, even though rights groups said many were being coerced or paid to move. The government denies the charges.

“Mashallah! Wonderful place,” one man, a father of six, exclaimed using an Arabic expression for appreciation at the arrangements at Bhasan Char.

“We are so happy with the accommodation. The children are so excited to see the playground,” he said, but added: “We just pray floods don’t kill us.”

Cheek by Jowl

The government said earlier this month that the housing was built on concrete foundation which could withstand natural disasters, noting it withstood cyclone Amphan in May which killed more than 100 people in Bangladesh and eastern India.

A middle-aged man who reached Bhasan Char with his wife and three children on Tuesday said his camp leader had convinced him that they were better off relocating than staying back in the dilapidated shelters on the mainland where one million of them live cheek by jowl.

Reuters is withholding the names of the Rohingya to protect their identity as some in the community are against the move to the isolated island from where they won’t be allowed to leave without government permission.

The government has built a 2-metre (6.5 feet) high embankment for 12 kms (7.5 miles) to protect the island, where sheep grazed on its greenish-grey grass as the new arrivals were screened for coronavirus by health workers in white overalls.

Reuters was not allowed to meet with a previous group of some 1,600 Rohingya that was relocated early this month, but a Navy SUV drove journalists through the cemented lanes separating neat rows of grey-walled housing blocks with wide porches.

Journalists were also shown around an empty room with two steel-and-plastic bunk beds for four people, a community kitchen with multiple stoves separated by small concrete partitions and a fresh-water pond. A big white bungalow enclosed with a fence is reserved for VVIPs in case anyone fancies a visit.

“The Rohingya people who have shifted there are very happy with the arrangement,” Foreign Minister Abdul Momen told Reuters.

While rats, reptiles and insects are often eaten by families in rural areas

After the first wave of coronavirus hit Myanmar in March, 36-year-old Ma Suu closed her salad stall and pawned her jewelry and gold to buy food to eat.

During the second wave, when the government issued a stay-home order in September for Yangon, Ma Suu shut her stall again and sold her clothes, plates and pots.

With nothing left to sell, her husband, an out of work construction labourer, has resorted to hunting for food in the open drains by the slum where they live on the outskirts of Myanmar’s largest city.

“People are eating rats and snakes,” Ma Suu said through tears. “Without an income, they need to eat like that to feed their children.”

They live in Hlaing Thar Yar, one of Yangon’s poorest neighborhoods, where residents shine flashlights in the undergrowth behind their homes, looking for some night creature to stave off their hunger.

While rats, reptiles and insects are often eaten by families in rural areas, people in some urban areas are now being reduced to getting nutrition however they can.

With more than 40,000 cases and 1,000 deaths, Myanmar is facing one of Southeast Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreaks, and the lockdown in Yangon has left hundreds of thousands of people, like Ma Suu, without work and precious little support.

Local administrator Nay Min Tun said in his part of Hlaing Thar Yar 40% of households had received aid but many workplaces were shut and people had become more desperate.

Myat Min Thu, the ruling party lawmaker for the area, said government aid and private donations was being distributed but acknowledged not everyone could be covered.

The crisis has cast a shadow over a general election planned for Nov. 8, though Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is still expected to win by a comfortable margin.

Nothing but the Market

Even before the pandemic, a third of Myanmar’s 53 million people were considered “highly vulnerable” to falling into poverty, despite recent gains following the country’s emergence from decades of ruinous isolation under the military junta.

The financial squeeze now threatens to plunge many back into poverty or squash their chances of getting out.

Poverty in the developing East Asia and Pacific region is set to rise for the first time in 20 years due to COVID-19, the World Bank said in September, with about 38 million expected to remain in or be pushed back into poverty.

Myanmar’s government has offered poor households a one-off food package and three cash grants of $15 each as part of its relief plan, but families say it falls far short.

A survey by ONow Myanmar of more than 2,000 people across the country in April found 70% had stopped working and a quarter had taken out loans for food, medicine, and other essentials.

Sectors driving industralisation in Myanmar – including garment work and tourism – have come to a halt while remittances have dried up, said Gerard Mccarthy, a postdoctoral fellow at the Asia Research Institute in Singapore.

“Households already in dire debt from paying for medical treatment, schooling, sustaining the elderly and everyday survival…many will need to pay off these loans before they can begin spending on anything discretionary,” he said.

Thant Myint-U, a Myanmar historian, rued the absence of a proper social safety net and the collapse of villages’ traditional welfare systems.

“For tens of millions of Myanmar’s poor, there is nothing other than the market, which in the good times provides opportunities for informal work in the cities or migration abroad but during a downturn is leaving the poorest with little more than the shirt on their backs,” he said.

Saudi Arabia has always done silently and powerfully without any sound and commotion.

A lot of people comment on my Facebook posts—”What is Saudi Arabia doing to help Muslims?”, and they accuse the leaders and the government of Saudi Arabia of passively watching the oppression happening against the Muslims outside their country. Meanwhile, they glorify the leaders of Turkey, Qatar and Iran for voicing the pressing issues of the Muslim community “bravely” without any hesitation.

But, I would say—”Saudi Arabia has it’s own way of dealing with the situations”. As the Urdu proverb goes—”garajne wale badal baraste nahi”—metaphorically it means barking dog seldom bites. In fact, this is the condition of the leaders of Turkey, Qatar and Iran, they can hardly compete with what Saudi Arabia has done for Muslims. Saudi Arabia has always done silently and powerfully without any sound and commotion.

Here is one such example from Srilanka. A right-wing Srilankan Politician Wimal Weerawansa—who is accused of spreading communalism can be seen signing trade-deal with KSA and the photos of Saudi King and Crown Prince are seen in his office.

If you would remember, Srilanka was burning in anti-Muslim hatred some years ago, and soon after the Easter attacks it was intensified. There were horrifying news stories coming about Buddhist extremists witch-hunting Muslims and Muslims had to live in constant fear. However, the unabated anger has now waned away.

Saudi Arabia under the leadership of King Salman and MBS in September 2019 donated $50 million to Srilankan government to establish a fully equipped faculty of medicine in the Sabaragamuwa University at Ratnapura, and Muslim World League donated $5 million to the victims of Srilanka’s Easter attack victims in August 2019. It’s quite known fact that—Saudi Arabia funded $45 million for the construction of 397 meters long Kinnya bridge which is a mini-replica of Jiaozhou Bay bridge of China.

With the passage of time, we have noticed the anti-Muslim hatred subsided and normalcy returned to Srilanka.

This piece would surely go lengthy if I cite the millions of dollars Saudi Arabia has donated to the countries like Yemen, Syria, Palestine, Burma, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Egypt, African nations, etc.

Saudi leaders aren’t like the leaders of Turkey, Qatar and Iran who pass heavy and harsh statements against their opponents while maintaining under-the-table diplomacy with them. Saudi Arabia seems to have worked positively and effectively.

Saudi Arabia has always stood for Muslims with whatever means it can—using its diplomatic ties, building financial dependencies, and using its allies.

However, a question that pops up is—how about the Muslims living as minority in India and other places? The response would be—politics will take time and in the meanwhile these Muslims should realize their own potential and leadership. “We ruled India for 800 years”—is not for boasting and bragging, rather it’s to work on your own and come out of the blame-game attitude.

I am sure, you would have stumbled across the verse in the Koran, where God said—”Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves”.

Instead of wailing and crying what Saudi Arabia has done for the Muslims, why don’t we ponder over our own condition and mend it accordingly while focusing on a bright future ahead.

Zahack Tanvir is a Computer Engineer and holds diploma in Journalism from London School of Journalism. He tweets under @zahacktanvir.

Myanmar military’s Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, his deputy Soe Win and two brigadier generals Than Oo and Aung Aung, and all of their families are charged under the sanctions, for their involvement in extrajudicial killings of Rohingya Muslims.

“We remain concerned that the Burmese government has taken no actions to hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations and abuses, and there are continued reports of the Burmese military committing human rights violations and abuses throughout the country,”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on the first day of an international ministerial conference on religious freedom hosted by Pompeo at the State Department, attended by Rohingya representatives.

“With this announcement, the United States is the first government to publicly take action with respect to the most senior leadership of the Burmese military,” added Pompeo.

“We designated these individuals based on credible information of these commanders’ involvement in gross violations of human rights,” he said.—Based on Reuters

Dr. Khalid Mohammed Manzlawi, deputy permanent representative of Saudi Arabia to UN, expressed that Saudi Arabia welcomes any effort to find a solution for the Rohingya refugees which helps them return to their homes with safety and peace, Saudi Press Agency reported.

UN Secretary General on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener briefed about the world’s worst humanitarian crises and the persecution of the Rohingya Muslim community.

However, Manzlawi sought proper timeframe and proofs of efforts made to deal with the Rohingya refugee crisis.

“Since the appointment of an envoy to Myanmar almost two years ago, my country’s mission has noted that the envoy’s briefing did not include information on what was achieved with respect to the issue and in line with the General Assembly’s resolution that calls for safe return of refugees to their homes and homeland in a secure and guaranteed dignity,” Manzlawi said.

“The received reports confirm that there is no tangible progress up to date and we want the special envoy to give clarifications on this,” he added.

Saudi Arabia has helped the Burmese Muslims since the 1950s and still have a lot of them. Most of them lived all their lives in Saudi and some of them got the Saudi nationality.

Late Imam of Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah Qari Mohammed Ayyub Sulaiman was the son of a Burmese refugee in Saudi Arabia.