Bleak future for Rohingya
Rohingya refugees take part in the ‘Genocide Remembrance Day’ rally to mark the anniversary of their mass exodus from Myanmar following a military crackdown, at a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar. Photo: AFP
The rain was relentless the night Mohammad Kaisar fled for his life from his home in Myanmar's Maungdaw township.
Barefoot and exhausted, he trudged with his parents and four siblings on mud paths until they reached the Naf River.
On a flimsy boat, they crossed into Bangladesh, joining around a million of the largely Muslim Rohingya minority, fleeing a military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state.
That was in 2017. Eight years later, rain still lashes down on his simple shelter in the sprawling refugee camps of Cox's Bazar.
But for the 28-year-old refugee, nothing has washed away his despair.
"War is raging. Hundreds are waiting at the border to enter Bangladesh. Every day, a new family from Rakhine takes refuge," Kaisar told AFP by telephone, speaking outside his cramped hut in Balukhali camp.
"How is it possible to return home? We were destined to stay in this crowded camp, sandwiched between small huts."
Bangladesh on Monday is holding talks aimed at addressing the plight of Rohingya refugees, even as fresh arrivals cross over from war-torn Myanmar and shrinking aid flows deepen the crisis.
The meetings in Cox's Bazar are taking place ahead of a UN conference in New York on September 30.