Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House notes that:

(1) 25 August 2020 marked three years since over 700,000 Rohingya, including more than 400,000 children, fled from targeted violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State, to Bangladesh;

(2) the camps in Bangladesh now host over 850,000 refugees in crowded conditions which is also impacting the lives of over 400,000 local Bangladeshis;

(3) an estimated 600,000 Rohingya remain in Rakhine State;

(4) since 2017, the Australian Government has provided over $260 million in lifesaving humanitarian assistance for displaced and conflict-affected communities in Bangladesh and Myanmar, working through UN agencies, international and national NGOs such as BRAC, Save the Children, CARE, World Vision, Plan International and Oxfam and their local partners to deliver food, shelter, water and sanitation, health and education services, and targeted support for women and girls to help combat risks including gender-based violence and trafficking;

(5) annual monsoons and cyclones have brought additional risks, and the COVID-19 virus has now arrived, with 88 confirmed cases to date in the Cox's Bazar camps and over 80 active cases in Rakhine State; and

(6) Australia remains committed to supporting Myanmar to create conditions on the ground conducive to voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable returns for all displaced peoples.

I rise to speak about our region's single biggest humanitarian crisis and the plight of the Rohingya people. In January this year I took my first official trip abroad as an MP on a parliamentary delegation to Bangladesh, hosted by Save the Children and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I was accompanied by Liberal senator Wendy Askew, Senator Kristina Keneally, the member for Cowan and the member for Fremantle to witness firsthand how our Australian aid benefits approximately 850,000 Rohingya refugees and the surrounding Bangladeshi host communities of 400,000 locals at Cox's Bazar.

I thank the honourable members and senators for this trip and for the opportunity to get to know them through the lens of compassion, bipartisanship and Australian foreign aid programs. I also thank the team from Save the Children for their dedication, not only for the complex arrangements for the parliamentary delegation but most importantly for their work supporting populations like the Rohingya and others around the world who find themselves in the very difficult circumstances born from conflict. Thank you to High Commissioner Jeremy Brewer, whom we accompanied on his first trip to Cox's Bazar to see the problems that the Australian Embassy in Dhaka works with on a daily basis—a large-scale humanitarian crisis that is now greatly exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic that all countries around the world face.

Myanmar has more than one-third of its population living in extreme poverty. It's one of the poorest countries in South-East Asia. Human rights violations were targeted at the Rohingya in Rakhine State in August 2017 by the military in Myanmar. Families, women and children were forced to flee on foot across the border to neighbouring Bangladesh to the coastal region of Cox's Bazar. Today there are an estimated 850,000 Rohingya refugees and 400,000 surrounding communities severely impacted by over 30 growing megacamps that now exist. These camps span as far as the eye can see. They have impacted Bangladeshis and an area that was once pristine elephant habitat. Australian aid agencies, including BRAC, deliver all manner of programs to these dreadfully disadvantaged peoples. The Australian government provides basic healthcare and vaccinations. We provide basic sanitation. We build toilets and shower blocks. We provide funding for primary education, for food vouchers and for counselling and medical services for those who have experienced violence, including women and girls. As part of our arrangement, Australians support the local host communities and health and education outcomes for Bangladeshis, and those members present will remember visits to a preschool, a school for those with a disability and a high school, where Australians provide local families and their children with hope and with opportunities.

Along with other countries such as the UK, the United States, Canada and New Zealand, Australia has contributed over $260 million to this crisis since 2017, and the foreign minister continues to work with the Bangladeshi and Myanmar governments to seek a way forward. Australia is spending foreign aid wisely, and it was on display every day of our trip as we were able to meet largely with women and children in the slums, in the camps and in safe places created by our government to protect the some 80 per cent of the camp population who are women and children from gender based violence.

On our first day, we visited the slumps of Dhaka. The conditions the members saw that day as we walked through the mud, mosquitoes, dense population and unsanitary environment were confronting, to say the least. I felt overwhelming empathy for those in Dhaka, but I felt proud to call myself and Australian who is assisting through my taxes and other donations the most vulnerable of the Bangladeshi population and, indeed, the Rohingya. We visited one woman who, through the BRAC program, was able to support her daughter to the age of 18 and thus avoiding her own daughter's child marriage at 12 as she herself was forced to do. The program not only assisted her family but created a surrounding micro-economy for her community. She graduated from ultrapoor status to poor status.

The situations in the camps at Cox's Bazar remains in crisis, and each year, with monsoon season, this population faces compounding difficulties that are unimaginable for most, if not all, Australians. I wish I could end my speech today with a proposed solution to this crisis, but I don't have the answers except to say that conditions for repatriation of the Rohingya to Myanmar must be safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable.

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for the motion?

Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of, if not the most discriminated people in the world: that's how UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the Rohingya people. The level of suffering and the level of abuse that's been experienced by the Rohingya has been well documented, but it bears repeating in this place. I thank the member for Moncrieff for bringing this very important motion before the House. I'm very pleased to be able to make a contribution to it. I also echo her comments. I think it is important that we recognise that this issue is the single biggest regional humanitarian crisis. It is important we engage in it and it is pleasing that a number of members and senators were able to visit the region, particularly the camps at Cox's Bazar, and bring home that testimony that we've heard so eloquently from the member for Moncrieff. As her private member's motion notes, 25 August this year was three years since over 700,000 Rohingya, including more than 400,000 children, fled violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State to reach Bangladesh.

As we speak, there are 850,000 people living in crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh. I want to acknowledge the work that's being done around this—the extraordinary work by international and national non-government organisations such as BRAC, Save the Children, CARE, World Vision, Plan International, Oxfam and many local partners who are working with UN agencies on the ground. I strongly encourage the Australian government to maintain our efforts and to continue providing vital aid and assistance, which has made such a difference but must go on to continue to make such a difference for some of the most vulnerable people, in particular women and girls.

But, of course, the Rohingya people are not going anywhere. This crisis is not going to just disappear. There are still more than half a million Rohingya believed to be living in Rakhine State. UN investigators have warned that there is a serious risk that genocidal actions may occur or recur. Human Rights Watch has stated that the remaining Rohingya in Rakhine face government persecution and violence, are confined to camps and villages without freedom of movement and are cut off from access to adequate food health care, education and livelihoods. This must come to an end. The international community must help find a durable and lasting resolution of the situation in Rakhine State, with the objective of Rohingya people being able to go home and live in peace.

We must also continue to show our resolve as Australians and as an Australian government by demonstrating our humanity and compassion by helping Rohingya people. We should be an exemplar in this regard. We should be working with the region, particularly when it comes to the forced movement of people. We should be more directly engaged with agencies, including the UNHCR, as Labor has proposed. We are more than five years on from the Andaman Sea crisis. I acknowledge the work in particular of the Kaldor Centre in encouraging wide reflection on this from a range of perspectives on the situation of the Rohingya and the broader question on whether the region is any more welcoming or better prepared to respond to mass displacement and forced migration, because we need to consider this being a continuing factor, particularly in the context of COVID and the context of climate change as well.

I want to finish my remarks on this debate with a passage from Habiburahman's First, They Erased Our Name –a Rohingya speech:

I am three years old and will have to grow up with the hostility of others. I am already an outlaw in my own country, an outlaw in the world. I am three years old, and don’t yet know that I am stateless.

These are powerful words that capture the despair faced by the Rohingya people. We should listen to them. They demand our attention. It is vital that we engage with the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine state. It is vital that we turn our attention to what is going on in Cox's Bazar and other camps. It is vital that we remain focused and, indeed, refocus our efforts on providing humanitarian assistance to those in need, but we also must do all we can to help resolve this ongoing crisis for the Rohingya and for the world.

Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For displaced people seeking refuge as a last resort, this is a difficult situation. Their preference, naturally, is to safely return to their homes and live without fear of war or persecution. At the same time, it is in the interests of regional stability to support displaced persons return to their homes when safe to do so, to avoid the upheaval, unrest and risks associated with the refugee crisis. That is why the Morrison government is committed to providing lifesaving humanitarian assistance for displaced and conflict-affected Rohingya communities in Bangladesh and Myanmar. In fact, we have committed $260 million since 2017, when this crisis first emerged.

Almost three years ago, over 700,000 Rohingya fled targeted violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state to Bangladesh. Today, there are nearly one million refugees in Cox's Bazar, the largest refugee camp in the world. There are a further 150,000 in Malaysia, India, Indonesia and other host countries. On first visiting the camps, United Nations Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, recalled observing unprecedented despair and trauma because of the violence endured in terrible living conditions, and we heard the member for Moncrieff's very moving recollection of this herself from when she visited just last year. There have been reports of killings, human trafficking and gender based violence inside the refugee camps. This is alongside the ongoing threat of human disease, including COVID-19 and malnutrition and, of course, natural disaster, which is something that affects this part of the world quite a lot.

Bangladesh has provided temporary protection for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya and we should be thankful for the refuge they have provided. This crisis has, no doubt, heavily impacted local Bangladeshi communities, who have ultimately been the first responders to this crisis. But, that being said, the Bangladeshi government's plan to relocate approximately 100,000 Rohingya, the first of which were moved just last week, to Bhasan Char, a volatile and remote island which emerged in 2006 as a result of silt, has been consistently opposed by the UN and other international aid organisations, including Human Rights Watch. We instead need to focus on achieving voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of displaced Rohingya to Myanmar.

As mentioned earlier, humanitarian assistance to avert a worsening refugee crisis is in the interests of regional stability. The International Crisis Group has warned of the potential for Islamic terrorist groups to take advantage of the plight of the Rohingya should the Myanmar government fail to resolve this crisis. Similarly, the United States Director of National Intelligence has said that the refugee crisis threatens Myanmar's democracy, heightening the risk of violent extremism and providing an opening for outside influence. As a democratic middle power, it is not in Australia's interests to let this unrest continue. Likewise, the lives of Burmese civilians should not be placed at risk as a result of any mishandling of the crisis.

Since 2017, Australia has provided over $260 million in humanitarian assistance for displaced and conflict-affected Rohingyas. In 2018, Australia was the third-largest donor to the UN's consolidated humanitarian appeal for displaced communities in Cox's Bazar, after the United States and the United Kingdom. Again, we've heard how that funding has been in action, on the ground, through the member for Moncrieff's very important contribution here this morning. This involved working closely with UN agencies and NGOs such as Oxfam, World Vision and BRAC, as well as Save the Children.

Save the Children has been doing some incredibly important work in this area, and CEO Paul Ronalds is a constituent of my electorate of Higgins. In September 2017, Save the Children expanded their work on the ground in Bangladesh to get immediate support to the new arrivals. In May 2018, Save the Children expanded their work on the ground and were running more than 90 child-friendly spaces and opened a new 20-bed primary health care centre to families. This year, with the outbreak of COVID, Save the Children has opened a new isolation and treatment centre, with a capacity of up to 60 beds.

Resolving this humanitarian crisis is a key priority for all governments. The success of Myanmar and the region more broadly hinges on it. We will continue to strive for the voluntary, safe, dignified and sustained return of displaced Rohingyas to Myanmar.

I would like to acknowledge a Bangladeshi who works here in Parliament House: Del, from hospitality, who now, through his taxes, supports his countrymen and women in Dhaka and Cox's Bazar.

Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also want to thank the member for Moncrieff for moving this motion and I, too, stand to speak on the dire situation faced by Rohingya people in Myanmar and Bangladesh—one of the worst situations in the region. Since 2017, more than 850,000 Rohingya have been violently forced from their homes in Myanmar into one of the largest refugee camps across the border in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh.

The Rohingya people have often been described as the world's most persecuted minority. They're a predominantly Muslim group of people who have been effectively stateless for decades. The Rohingya are not recognised by the Myanmar government as one of the country's 135 distinct ethnic groups; nor are they considered to be citizens by the Myanmar government.

In January 2017, I had the opportunity to visit Myanmar and Rakhine state with a delegation of MPs with Save the Children, who do such great work in the region. We saw firsthand what the Rohingya were facing in those camps. Remarkably, we were able to visit some of these IDP camps which tens of thousands of Rohingya had been forced into following severe operations conducted against them by the military. These military operations were triggered by or were in response to nine Myanmar police officers being killed in October 2016 by Rohingya insurgents. Rather than a proportional response from the Tatmadaw, the Myanmar military, what we saw was a scorched-earth military response where the military razed thousands of Rohingya homes and villages across Rakhine state and further north, and there were estimates that around 3,000 Rohingya were killed; there were reports of children being killed; and there were reports of rape being used as a weapon of war. What we saw, effectively, was ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

The Rohingya people continue to be in an extremely dangerous situation. Not only are they fleeing the violence against them in Myanmar; they're also seeking refuge in Bangladesh—a country which, frankly, struggles to meet the housing, food and water needs of these hundreds of thousands of people in Cox's Bazar. And now, with COVID-19, a new challenge exists. Up to 90,000 people live on one square kilometre of land, making it one of the most densely populated areas on the planet. With families living in one-room plastic-and-bamboo shelters, let's be clear: physical distancing is next to impossible. In the communal bathrooms and the water points, soap and clean water are luxuries, making maintaining good hygiene extremely difficult. And, while we debate here whether we wear masks or not, in Cox's Bazar there are simply not enough masks to go around.

Without the assistance of UNICEF, Save the Children, World Vision, Oxfam and other international NGOs and UN agencies and the support from countries like Australia, among other countries, the situation would be even more dire than it is now. It's estimated that 600,000 stateless Rohingya remain in Rakhine State, some 140,000 of whom are in IDP camps or camp-like conditions. Those who decide to cross into Bangladesh are treated as migrants with no legal status, and their ability to maintain a safe haven in that country is uncertain at best.

While I have welcomed the Australian government's contributions to help with this crisis, I've also called here in this place for the Australian government to do more. In 2017, I called for the Australian government to consider reinstating the suspended autonomous sanctions ban on the Myanmar government. In fact, a bipartisan delegation went to see then foreign minister Julie Bishop with some of the feedback on these matters that we had received from our trip. We were obviously pleased that in 2018 we saw the government impose financial sanctions and travel bans on members of the Tatmadaw. In response to the release of the full report of the UN fact-finding mission on Myanmar, which documented the human rights abuses committed primarily against these ethic communities.

In 2020 Australia has of course been focused on our own health and economic crises and what we must do to get us through them. But, while we do this, we must also never forget about the millions of persecuted people who are in such difficulty around the world, people like the Rohingya. We shouldn't turn a blind eye to these devastations that they face. We have a duty, I think, as a wealthy nation to lend a hand when it is needed and, as a democracy committed to human rights, to speak out about atrocities and condemn and sanction the perpetrators of those crimes. Given the scale of the persecution by the Tatmadaw and the associated parties and the refugee burden being imposed on Bangladesh, it is appropriate that we take these steps, because I think it is probably true to say that, in years to come, each of us will be asking ourselves, 'What did we do when we were faced with these challenges?'

Dave Sharma (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Moncrieff for putting this item on Federation Chamber's agenda. This is a very important issue. It is an issue that has not gone away; in fact, it has gotten worse in the past three years. This month marks three years since the Rohingya people were forced to flee Bangladesh because of persecution. It was 25 August 2017 when violence broke out in Myanmar's Rakhine State, driving more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to seek refuge in Bangladesh. At least 6,700 Rohingya, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in that month that violence broke out. Most arrived in Bangladesh in the first three months of the crisis, with the vast majority being women and children and more than 40 per cent of them being under the age of 12. Many others, including elderly people, required additional aid and protection. They had nothing and they needed everything.

Most Rohingya are now stateless, with an estimated 600,000 people living in Myanmar's western Rohingya State. Cox's Bazar—which I know many members here have visited—which is located in Bangladesh is now one of the world's largest refugee camps, hosting somewhere in the order of 850,000 Rohingya, and is currently facing an unpreceded health crisis due to the risks of COVID-19 and other communicable diseases. Undoubtedly, the Rohingya crisis is the largest and the most complex humanitarian crisis in our region, in the Indo-Pacific. It also raises a national security problem, as it becomes a window for religious extremism and radicalism to seek to exploit. The Cox's Bazar district has long been known as a base for human trafficking, organised crime and other armed groups. The change in social dynamics brought about by the Rohingya refugee flux, together with increased economic vulnerability and pressures on the local population, creates a situation where many of these vulnerable communities can be preyed upon.

There are now over 1.2 million people requiring humanitarian assistance in Cox's Bazar, including both Rohingya refugees and impacted host communities in the Bangladesh area. The two main challenges that the Rohingya community is facing in terms of health are the risks of communicable diseases, increased by the congestion in the camps and the obvious prevalence of COVID-19, and the lack of maternal and newborn healthcare services. I'm pleased that, since August 2017, Australia has provided over $260 million in humanitarian assistance to address the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh and in Myanmar, working with international and regional organisations to deliver effective and targeted support. Australia is supporting the government of Bangladesh to respond to immediate and long-term humanitarian needs in Cox's Bazar by providing funding and employing Australian civilian specialists. This includes in areas such as food, clean water, shelter, health and sanitation services, as well as counselling and medical services for those who have experienced violence, most especially women and young girls.

This assistance by Australia also aims to build refugees' and host communities' resilience and self-reliance, including through supporting access to education and skills development. Australia overall is one of the top five bilateral donors contributing humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya crisis. We recognise the disproportionate impact that this crisis has had on women and girls. During 2018-19 Australia's support reached over half a million women and girls, including providing counselling and medical services to women and girls who have experienced violence, and food and nutrition focused on children under five and women who are breastfeeding. Australia has also taken a leadership role in promoting disability inclusion in the camps, recognising that people with disabilities are often the first left behind in humanitarian responses.

The tropical monsoons with heavy summer rains experienced in Bangladesh are usually accompanied by cyclones and floods, often with catastrophic consequences. There are concerns that the monsoon season this year will increase the vulnerability of camps, elevate the risk of outbreaks of water-borne diseases such as cholera and threaten already precarious water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure and services.

Bangladesh is one of the world poorest countries, with almost one in four Bangladeshis living in poverty and 13 per cent per cent in extreme poverty. In 2019 Bangladesh was ranked 135th out of 189 countries in the Human Development Index. The impacts of seasonally extreme climate events, mass refugee migration and COVID-19 have altogether placed stress on the Bangladeshi government and people. This backdrop paints a particularly dark picture. The Rohingya need our support. It's important for Australia to continue to work with regional and international partners to create enduring solutions for the many problems that Rohingyas face. Australia remains committed to addressing this issue and to encouraging Myanmar to create conditions on the ground conducive to voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable returns for all displaced peoples.

Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I start by thanking the member for Moncrieff for bringing this motion to the House. I was very fortunate to visit Bangladesh earlier this year with the member for Moncrieff. We went with Save the Children. We saw firsthand the important and valuable work that's being done on the ground, not just in the camps but also through Bangladesh.

The Rohingya are the forgotten people. The Myanmar government and military have undertaken a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing, forcing the Rohingya out of Myanmar and into Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government is doing its best. We know that and we saw that. We saw how much effort has put in from one of the world's poorest nations, Bangladesh, in accommodating as best they can one million Rohingya refugees. But they cannot sustain the number of refugees that have come in from Myanmar, and they cannot keep them there in the long term. It is not a long-term solution.

For those other members of the House who have been to Myanmar and have visited Cox's Bazar, it is extremely confronting to visit those camps. There are several things that stand out in my memory. One of them is what the representatives from the United Nations said when we asked them, 'What is your plan should there be a monsoon or a cyclone?' The response was, 'The best that we can plan for is 500,000 mass graves.' There is absolutely nothing else that they can do in that situation.

There are many more things that I could talk about. I could talk about the wonderful time that we spent with the women's group there, who, despite all the hardship that they are in, found time to smile and have a dance with the member for Moncrieff and me. I could talk about the makeshift sewerage system and the work that's being done there to provide a place for people to bathe and shower. I could talk about the wonderful children's school, and singing 'Twinkle twinkle little star' while sitting on the floor of a makeshift hut, again with a member from Moncrieff. I could talk about the homes consisting of nothing more than a couple of wooden stakes and a dusty tarpaulin. One of the things that stands out most in my mind, though, is sitting on a bus next to the member for Moncrieff, holding her hand as we approached the camp, and both of us taking in a collective breath as our eyes filled with tears at the sight of it. It confirmed for me something that I knew already, and that is that empathy and sympathy don't wear red or blue—or, in today's case, green or black—and that through bipartisanship and working together we can make a difference. We can ensure that the people of Rakhine State and the Rohingyas are not the forgotten people. We can ensure that our government does the best that it can and all that it can to work with the Bangladeshi government and the Myanmar government—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 13:21 to 13:33

As I was saying, we can make a difference here through bipartisanship and through working together. We can make a difference in ensuring that, in Myanmar, the conditions are created to ensure the safe and dignified return of the Rohingya people to Rakhine state. One of the things that we learned when we went on the trip was that the best outcome that we could hope for for the one million displaced people is their return to their homes in a safe, sustainable and dignified manner. I urge all members of parliament, if they get an opportunity, to take up an offer to visit Cox's Bazaar and see for themselves. Brace yourselves for the confronting scenes that you will see. Once again, I thank the member for Moncrieff, not just for raising this but also for her friendship over the year.

Debate adjourned.

Proceedings suspended from 13:34 to 15:59