Child exploitation rife in Rohingya refugee camps: IOM

A probe by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reveals numerous cases of exploitation and trafficking in Bangladesh’s refugee camps, where Rohingya children have been subjected to forced labor, beatings and sexual assaults.

The IOM found that Rohingya refugee children working harsh hours for little pay in Bangladesh, with some suffering beatings and sexual assault.

Independent reporting by Reuters published by the news agency on Monday corroborated some of the IOM findings.

About 450,000 children, or 55 percent of the refugee population, live in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh after fleeing violence and persecution at home in Myanmar.

Most of the refugees have arrived in the past two and a half months after Myanmar’s military launched what was described by the UN as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” in Rohingya-majority Rakhine State.

The IOM’s findings are based on discussions with groups of long-term residents and recent arrivals, and separate interviews by Reuters and other groups and news outlets. The results show children were targeted by predators and, in many cases, encouraged to work by their poor parents amid widespread malnutrition and poverty in the camps.

Rohingya boys as young as seven years old were confirmed working outside the refugee camps on farms, construction sites and fishing boats, as well as in tea shops and as rickshaw drivers, the IOM and Rohingya residents in the camp reported.

Muhammad Zubair, aged between 12 to 14 years old from the Kutupalong camp, said he was offered 250 taka ($3) per day but ended up with only 500 taka ($6) for 38 days work on building roads.

“It was hard work, laying bricks on the road,” he said, recalling that he was verbally abused by his employers when he asked for more pay and told to leave.

SS