Khan, Hafiz T.A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1817-3730, Rahman, Mohammed Arifur, Molla, Morshed Hossan and Shahjahan, Mohammad (2019) Elderly persons in humanitarian emergencies in Bangladesh: qualitative experiment on dreams and reality. In: International Conference on the Rohingya Crisis in Comparative Perspective, 4-5 July 2019, UCL. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The recent influx of Myanmar Rohingya people has created huge strains for the host community in Ukhiya and Teknaf Upazilas under the Cox’s Bazar District in the southern part of Bangladesh. The strains involve socio-economic, cultural, political and environmental burdens for the Government of Bangladesh. Although it has allowed the Rohingya people solely for humanitarian reasons, as yet the country has received little support from the international community in order to help return them to their country of origin. In this forced Rohingya migration crisis, the elderly, children and women and also young girls are the most vulnerable. Bangladesh has successfully managed the crisis so far by providing food, shelter and medical support in an integrated way. As an NGO, YPSA is providing support to elderly Rohingya people in the camps since the crisis began through age friendly support centres in selected camps in order to provide basic medical treatment, counselling, education, health and wellbeing, indoor games and recreation space for example. Yet there have not been any study involving the Rohingya elderly in the camps to help understand their expectations. The purpose of the paper is to examine the current support for the Rohingya elderly in the Ukhiya camps and to evaluate their expectations for returning to Myanmar. A pilot survey was conducted on 26th April 2019 in two campsites and in-depth interviews conducted with 4 participants (2 males and 2 females) followed by a focus group discussion. It emerged that the elderly receive necessary services from the YPSA centres and are generally happy with those services. They also reported that they remain grateful to Bangladesh for sheltering them but are not happy compared to their lives back in Myanmar. Almost all the elderly that took part reported that their expectation is to go back to Myanmar as soon as possible. They also seek justice from the international community so that the Rohingya crisis can soon come to an end.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects:	Medicine and health > Health promotion and public health
Depositing User:	Hafiz T.A. Khan
Date Deposited:	05 Jul 2019 22:10
Last Modified:	04 Nov 2024 12:49
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/6218

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