Abu Dhabi: Popular Emirati social commentator Khalid Al Ameri, who just returned from a Bangladesh trip to raise funds for the Rohingyas, says he found a minefield of life lessons in the hardships faced by the world’s fastest growing refugees.
“Filming their lives was a life changing experience. I went there hoping to see struggle, anger and pain, but what I saw instead was courage and perseverance,” recalls Al Ameri.
UNHCR Mission
He and his wife Salama were invited to Bangladesh by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to raise awareness on the plight of Rohingya refugees.
During the three-day visit, the couple lived in refugee camps and interacted with hundreds of people displaced by violence and persecution in Myanmar.
Their first stop was the Women’s Counselling Centre which shelters widows and rape victims. “I couldn’t hold my ears listening to their gut-wrenching stories. These women and children had suffered some of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind, but they still managed a smile,” he said. “Each person had an agonising story. One mother told me how she watched helplessly as the throats of her five children were slit in front of her while a young couple recounted how they survived by hiding underwater for two weeks,” he added.
On the second day of their trip, Al Ameri and Salama visited the Transit Centre where they helped dig trenches for water and distributed relief supplies. “I came across a a five-year-old who was taking care of his two-year old sister. Far from being traumatised, most people I met in the refugee camps were surprisingly resilient. Despite having lost everything they were still positive and hoped for a better future.” Al Meri said the main aim of his trip was to raise funds to build shelters for refugees ahead of the monsoon.
International advisers have warned that the upcoming rainy season could result in “enormous deaths” among Rohingya as their camps are not built to withstand storms.
“We are at this time in a race against time. For us, the monsoons are coming. The camps of almost one million people are not built to withstand the monsoon,” Kobsak Chutikul, from the advisory group, said at a press conference in Singapore recently.
“There’ll be enormous deaths if all parties do not move to some understanding on repatriation, on aid,” Chutikul added.
