Arakan News Agency | Exclusive
Hundreds of Rohingya refugees gathered on Saturday at Camp-13 in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in a peaceful assembly during which they made an urgent appeal to the United Nations and the international community for justice and the recognition of their rights. The gathering came just three days before the Global Rohingya Conference scheduled for September 30.
Participants raised banners and chanted slogans calling for justice, dignity, and lasting peace, stressing that their decades-long suffering of displacement, statelessness, and persecution must not be forgotten.
“We are here for the future generations. Our message to the United Nations is simple: recognize our rights, listen to our pain, and stand with us in the pursuit of justice,” one participant told Arakan News Agency.
Rohingya community leaders urged that the upcoming conference serve as a turning point toward practical solutions rather than merely a symbolic event. They called for recognition of the Rohingya identity, the restoration of citizenship rights in Myanmar, accountability for crimes committed against their community, and the creation of safe, voluntary, and dignified conditions for their return.
The event highlighted the resilience of the Rohingya community despite years of harsh displacement in the Cox’s Bazar camps, as they continue to mobilize peacefully to demand international solidarity and concrete actions.
This grassroots mobilization comes ahead of the UN conference, which community leaders describe as a last opportunity to end their suffering, emphasizing that delaying justice only deepens their humanitarian and political crises.
The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution last November to hold an international conference this year aimed at finding sustainable solutions to the Rohingya crisis, following a proposal by the Prime Minister of Bangladesh in September. Bangladesh had also urged Rohingya factions to unite ahead of the international conference to ensure their voices are heard globally.
Bangladesh currently hosts over one million Rohingya refugees in the Cox’s Bazar camps, which the United Nations classifies as the largest refugee camp in the world. Refugees there have been living in dire humanitarian conditions since fleeing Myanmar in 2017, following a campaign of “genocide” carried out by the Myanmar military against them. Fresh waves of displacement into Bangladesh have continued since fighting reignited in Myanmar’s Arakan State between the military and the Arakan Army (AA) in November 2023.
