Opinion | Two years on, has the world forgotten the Rohingya children?
- The Rohingya children who fled rape, torture and killings are not a lost generation – but they are in danger of becoming a forgotten one
Fatima is acutely aware of the importance of school. The 13-year-old fled Myanmar two years ago with nothing. She now lives in the world’s biggest refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar with her parents, two sisters and grandfather. She has faced difficulties most children her age never will. She wants to be a teacher, but not just any teacher. She wants to teach girls because when girls are educated, they teach others.
In other words, Fatima wants to have a future, as do hundreds of thousands of Rohingya children who had to leave their homes. Two years into the crisis, however, they still live in squalid conditions. They have little hope, and those who are responsible for the atrocities have yet to face justice. It is time for the world to make sure that Rohingya children get justice for what they have suffered. This would protect them (and other children) from this happening again. It would give them the future they want.
Rohingya children witnessed rape, torture and killing. Some were raped and tortured themselves; many saw friends and family killed before their eyes. All they could do was run while their homes burnt.
