Rohingya refugees in Sri Lanka want a solution with dignity and a future
A hundred refugees who landed in 2022 rallied in protest in front of the United Nations Office in Colombo. After surviving genocide, they wonder if they will “now die from hunger and abandonment”. In their appeal to the authorities, they are grateful to Sri Lanka and its people, but they have had enough to live as refugees. For Rev Marimuttu Sathivel, speaking to AsiaNews, the UN should act immediately and take “responsibility for these refugees.”
Colombo (AsiaNews) – About a hundred Rohingya refugees, including widows and orphans, held a protest in front of the United Nations Office in Colombo, waving placards. “We survived genocide. Will we now die from hunger and neglect?” said one. “No more Refugee life," said another. “We need a durable solution,” read a third.
The tragedy of those who fled violence in Rakhine (Myanmar) in 2022, and landed in Sri Lanka, has no end. They are asking the UN and the Sri Lankan government for justice and an end to their heartbreaking fate. The refugees delivered a petition to the United Nations Office demanding permanent solutions.
“The government has a duty to take care of them, and international organisations should provide them with protection and possibly citizenship," said Rev Marimuttu Sathivel, an Anglican priest and human rights activist, speaking to AsiaNews.
Thanks to residents in Panadura, western Sri Lanka, they received immediate albeit temporary aid, including shelter and food, soon after arriving three years ago. Despite this, local efforts are not sufficient to guarantee them a dignified existence.
Refugees are grateful to Sri Lanka for saving their lives from the sea. One of the latest groups, 115 people, arrived in the South Asian country last December after years in camps on the border with Bangladesh.
“How much longer must we endure this inhuman existence?“ read another sign held by a young man. “Now we are left to die in the land,” said another.
“We are survivors of the worst crisis in modern history. We survived the genocide in Myanmar. Our homes were reduced to ashes. Our women were raped. Our children were burned alive. We have been subjected to ethnic cleansing in Myanmar for decades. We were driven from our homeland. The United Nations has identified us as the most persecuted people in the world,” said one youth reading the group’s protest letter.
“In December 2022, when we were stranded at sea for weeks – hungry, thirsty and hopeless – the Sri Lanka Navy rescued us. At that moment, we felt the compassion of this country, for which we will forever be grateful. Sri Lanka saved our lives, gave us another chance to hope and dream,” reads the letter.
“We hope that Sri Lanka will now be able to work with the international community to find a lasting solution that will ensure our dignity, security and future," it goes on to say.
Rev Sathivel explained to AsiaNews that the Christian mission is to protect the refugees’ lives and help them obtain their human dignity and live where they wish, in peace.
“Many Sri Lankans are living like refugees around the world, and some have been provided citizenship,” said Father Sathivel. “If those countries look after refugees from Sri Lanka, without neglecting them, and protect their lives, our country too has a duty to look after whoever comes as refugees to Sri Lanka, with humanity.”
The United Nations Human Rights Commission and international refugee advocacy groups have a great role to play in providing these people with basic needs, as well as citizenship.
For its part, “the UN Human Rights Commission should have responsibility for these refugees,” explained the Anglican clergyman. “These people witnessed several deaths in their voyage, and threw bodies into the sea and came here. They must be helped now, without further delay.”
Photo by Sampath Samrakoon.
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26/03/2019 15:03
