Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh rally to 'go home'

Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh staged demonstrations demanding repatriation back to Myanmar, where they fled a brutal military crackdown five years ago. Almost a million Rohingya are confined to bamboo and tarpaulin shacks in 34 squalid camps in southeast Bangladesh, with no work, poor sanitation and little access to education. Their increasingly restrictive host country has banned them from holding rallies since they staged a massive 100,000-strong protest in August 2019. But authorities allowed several groups of Rohingya to hold simultaneous “Go Home” marches and rallies ahead of World Refugee Day. “We don’t want to stay in the camps. Being refugees is not easy. It’s hell. Enough is enough. Let’s go home,” top Rohingya community leader Sayed Ullah said. – AFP