moment? >> a fire at one of the world's largest refugee camps has brought new focus on the flight -- light of the rohingya. fleeing eight 2017 crackdown in myanmar. what does the future hold for them? this is "inside story." ♪ >> hello and welcome to the program. cox's bazaar in southern

bangladesh is home to about a million rohingya refugees. on sunday, life in one of the most crowded refugee camps in the world got even more difficult. a huge fire broke out burning down makeshift homes and causing extensive damage. before we bring in our panel today let's first speak to him, founder and editor of rohingyato graphy magazine and saw the fires in the camp. thank you for being with us today. i am glad you and your family are safe. how bad was this latest fire? how frightening was it for you and other refugees in the camp? >> yes, brother mohammed. i saw the fire. i was working at my office at the time when i saw the smoke. the people were fleeing and

saving their shelter. i ran from my office. i run there to the spot. to the fire burning area. i saw it was really devastating fire. such a big fire. people were escaping from the fire. saving the lives. their children, young people helping the elderly people to escape from the fire. there were -- they did not have the chance to save any other materials, any other thing from the shelter, because they did not have time to save them. the fire was spreading very fast.

because it was windy during the fire incident. a strong went -- wind. people run and escape from the fire and the shelters were burned. everything they had in the shelter was also burned. so more than 2000 families were affected. so, over a thousand refugees becoming homeless and losing shelter and food and everything. >> you and other photographers have been documenting life in the camps for a while. you are the founder and editor of the rohingyatographer magazine. we are looking at some of the photos and videos you provided for us. showing the fire and the aftermath of the fire.

why is it so important for you and your colleagues to continue to showcase and document the daily life of rohingya refugees? >> yes. it is very important. because, we want to raise awareness. we want to show the situation. we want to tell about the situation. of the fire destruction and to the people around the world. so that people around the world know about our situation. about the situation of the people who have been affected by the massive fire yesterday. we will run our request to the international community to support and come over to support

the people in crisis who are really needy. this time in a situation, they do not have a phone -- a home, food, water. they lost everything. they are hoping to rebuild their life from the beginning. >> he is a photographer documenting daily life of the rohingya refugees, thank you for joining us and think you for your important work. how did the rohingya and upton bangladesh in the first place? security forces launched a crackdown against the largely muslim rohingya and 2017. they have been denied citizenship in myanmar and no official status in bingley --.

making -- bangladesh, making them stateless. the world food program says they are cutting back on rations. let's bring in the rest of our guests now. and daca, wendy mccance, and virginia, tom andrews, and homburg, ambia perveen. founder of the rohingya medics association. dr. let me start with you today. there have been numerous fires in the camps have impacted rohingya refugees. this latest one highlights how dire the situation remains for rohingya refugees. how traumatic is this for the refugees who are impacted by these buyers? ambia: thank you for the question i will try to be short.

there are a lot of negative things have been happening. especially on the negative side for the rohingyas. especially living in bangladesh. they are becoming, not only were people are, at the time bombarded with the human -- huge challenges of life and open to child -- traumas. it happened yesterday as well as last year and in 2021. there are several times this kind of incident happened. plus, after this incident there was a shortage of food vouchers for the people. these people are not only becoming the vulnerable, but they are also becoming -- the help that the need from the international and local society is getting worse.

if you see this triggering, often these incidents annex since that happened in camp where people are having -- accidents are happening in camp, where -- these people, the international community and the bangladesh government has noticed but nothing has done -- and done. you can see zero policies to help the rohingya living and bangladesh. there are people running away taking the dangerous journey to travel to indonesia and malaysia are dying. they are in the hands of human traffickers. you can see, these accidents and incidents are happening. from the stakeholders there is not concrete steps to have -- to help these vulnerable people. >> when incidences like these

fires get reported there is often collective shock. calls to assist the rohingya more. sadly things do not seem to improve for the rohingya. you have sound of the alarm for a while now. calling out the international community for their failure to act. wire the rohingya not getting the attention they deserve? tom: that is a good question mohammed. thank you for focusing attention on this crisis. the fact is the rohingya are an invisible people to the world. when you have among various leaders of various countries, certainly members of the human rights council who i report to end jiva -- in geneva, speak very loudly about rohingya and the importance of international support. the problem is most of the countries represented do not provide funding for the rohingya refugees in bangladesh.

we have an announcement that there is a 17% cut because of the inadequate funds provided by the international community. it is announced that there is a 17% cut in food rations and in the camps. there will be additional cut in the next few weeks. individuals will be going from $.39, you u.s. cents per day for food, down to $.27 per day for food. you try to survive on $.27 per day for food, this is exactly what the rohingya people in the camps will live on because of the shortfall of the emergency response plan for the rohingya. that i believe is unconscionable by the international community. that people in these camps, the rohingya in these camps cannot eat political rhetoric. they need food. the international community has not been providing the food and

assistance that they need and deserve. >> when comey heard tom talk about something that tom has made -- wendy, you have heard tom talk about the cut in food vouchers. i have heard so much concern from somebody rohingya refugees about this. how concerned are you and your colleagues at your organization as well as other aid organizations? how catastrophic will this be for the population in the camps? wendy: absolutely, as tom says, the 17% funding cut in food rations, which means that refugees will have to try and work out how to substitute that. different mechanisms, we see great protections of the camps last for years about early marriage. which means that if food cuts

happen, is more likely to people looking for ways to get that themselves. what we are trying to find is a solution to move that forward a little bit so the conversation is not necessarily about more funding, more funding that is needed. actually we need to adapt the strategy. so the refugees can actually look to self-sustaining. to be able to access income generating activities to self-sustaining. that is the take away from that as well. >> dr., let me ask you as a doctor, how much concern do you have about the food aid situation in particular? malnutrition is already quite high, especially among children in the camps in fingal --. -- bangladesh. how much does this make things worse for the refugees? ambia: they not only have been deprived in the homeland, but also in bangladesh unfortunately

from basic human rights. one of them is the food. our children, under five years old, they were already malnourished. with these reduction of the vouchers it will also increase the malnutrition of the people and the children. also the ladies that are pregnant. the week people who have chronic vermin, as well as having chronic issues, they will also be affected with this. and then with this, the malnutrition, they will be prone to other infections. they will not have healthy development and also growth, they will be vulnerable to the traumas and dehumanization's processes. because of that these children will also will be involved in

the crimes. the youth involved in the crimes. also the girls will be in the child marriages, and the sexual violence is. the appearances will -- the parents will be forced to send them to other countries through the dangerous ways so they can lead a normal life. in general, our issue, the international committee has to understand. these are the people who left the country in 2017. there were always coming from emr due to the historic -- myanmar historic -- due to historical violence. the last genocide took place. when they came to the country bangladesh and the international community trusting that they would give us justice. they will take care of us. they will provide a safe and security.

they will do the maximum to do this. on the other site, some help has been provided, not on the interest of the rohingya. but also for the interest. you can see the hostility growing among the locals. the local community. and the international committee has given up. there is no common interest between the bangladesh and a clear interest between the bangladesh and myanmar. bangladesh is also given up. you might have heard two or three months ago, the prime minister declared the rohingya are a burden to them. they can only do so much for the rohingyas. fa prime minister stakeholders says such words there is a lack of will of law and -- or law and order. rules are not properly handled. people are doing whatever they want. with this accidents happen, there is still the barbed.

wire that still there. it is not removed from the previous accidents we have seen. children's have lost lives, children were injured, the children, all playing through the barbed wire they are injured. they cannot have a free life. the people cannot eat. >> doctor, i am sorry to interrupt you. let me get back to the question about some of the difficulties faced by the children. may go to tom with regards to a question i had. something to dr. bright up, the historical history -- historical systematic abuse and myanmar. when they focus on the rohingya they talk about the refugees in bangladesh but there are also hundreds of thousands in myanmar . >> conditions about, well over 600,000 rohingya in myanmar. it is largely a declining state.

of those, over 130,000 are in internment camps for over a decade. as you mentioned at the outset of the program they have no rights. they are denied basic human rights. even basic substance. they are unable to move. even those outside of the internment camps are under guard by the military. remember this. they are under the watch of a military that committed genocide against them just a few years ago. it is a terrifying situation they are living in. they are in desperate conditions. so we cannot forget the fact that, and i'm glad you asked the question, there are hundreds of thousands of rohingya in peril as we speak inside of myanmar. >> me follow up on a point you are making. the kinds of testimony i collected from the refugees in

cox's bazaar, when comes of the abuses at the hands of the myanmar military, quite frankly they are among the most orphic things i've heard in my career. you have -- horrific things i've heard in my career. you have said in the past that were crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed every day by the military junta in myanmar. what needs for this to stop? tom: the international committee needs to pay attention, making a strategic court needed response to this crisis so we maximize the pressure on the military junta. that we cut off is access to weapons and money that they are using to commit these crimes against humanity and these were crimes. if we took an approach similar to the one with ukraine. countries joined together, focus on where the greatest vulnerability of the junta is

and target the vulnerabilities. cutting off resources and weapons, then we could begin to see real pressure on the junta. right now the response has been uncoordinated. it has been just jointed. -- it has been disjointed. there are lots of ways for them to get around the sanctions. we have documented the various ways they could run the sanctions due to lack of enforcement. in short the international community needs to focus on this crisis and get much more serious about addressing this crisis in a coordinated strategic and effective way. >> wendy, what is happening on the ground in the camps in the aftermath of this fire? there are reports at least 2000 shelters burned. at least 12,000 refugees homeless. this is a horrific situation for members of a minority considered to be one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. these people were displaced already. many displaced again.

are they being relocated? how are they being helped? wendy: as you can imagine, it was pretty horrific. we had -- [indiscernible] those people will be moved to shared properties with friends or family or other facilities. we start the process of assessing, the damage, what materials to rebuild back, everyone does not have their own cooking agreement, giving out -- cooking agreement, giving up food, water, rations, it is a temporary measure. and will be longer about how to rebuild more shelter? our team is on the ground, looking to do to get back on

their feet and started start to rebuild the shelters? we distribute things like [indiscernible] so they can start to put up their own shelters. it is a huge operation the need to be managed. these things take time, it is happening very quickly starting today. a lot of would come about -- a lot of food going out, particularly in the evening signature people are protected. we have some of the sanitation of support needed. some of the children in particular, and the fire in 2021 there was a lot of missing children at that point. they flee. they get scared and lost because of the fires. trying to make sure everyone is accountable back with their families as quick as possible is pretty heartbreaking. >> i have reported several times from the camps, and when you go there you notice how extremely

overcrowded is -- they are, how dire the conditions are. can you help our viewers understand how easy it is for a fire to spread in that environment. how dangerous it is in a population when a fire starts. >> incredibly, a very very congested space. i am sure you are seeing some of the footage of some of the xers. and -- pictures. it is impossible to contain it. they were able to put some fire breaks around the fire so we did not spread to other camps. when you talk about camps, there is a gap between them, their pre-much back to back -- they are pretty much back to back that was a lifesaving measure that happened. they have cleaned up inside the camps, it is fire season, is very dry at the moment before the monsoons come.

the responders are try to get to the site of the fire, but the power plays a role. you cannot get a fire engine down there. there is no pumping water. it very limited in what is possible. he has a misting wishers, you have some sand buckets and -- have some extinguishers, you have sand buckets and etc.. is hard to be able to stop it. >> when it comes to legal cases ongoing, when it comes to the plight of the rohingya. there is the case of the international port of justice, the national -- international court of justice, and the international court, is it's moving fast enough or is not moving along? tom: it is not moving best of. justice is -- moving fast enough. justice is very slow.

there is lots of evidence. it continues to mount. they will be used for the prosecutions in the meantime. i am hopeful international community will pay greater attention to this crisis and these abuses. will focus, more pressure on the military junta. taking away its means of continuing the violations. providing basic support for the needs of the people. >> humanitarian aid for the rohingya has been declining for a couple of years now. is expected to fall even further this year. why do you think that is? how frustrating is that for you? you work so hard to try to ways -- raise awareness with the plight of the rohingya. and how their basic needs must be met. how difficult is that for you? wendy: very difficult -- ambia: very difficult. the rohingya cause is not only the political cause.

there are other crisis moving around. we need justice at the same time. we need to maintain these vulnerable people to mentally and medically stable, so they do not become a burden to our own community. that they will able to be contribute themselves, to locals, and to the country. also to be effective for the global society. when we raise to maintain basic human rights, it is so difficult. for example, our people, what about -- what they are getting is not enough. there seeking further -- for us. we have to financially and morally support them. we have to financially work for ourselves. we need also money and all the stuff.

to work for a community and also -- it is very difficult. you can see the best solution, among what mr. andrews said, it is important that we not only -- we have to stabilize our people, we have to make independent. if you make them independent it is a great solution. because, if this food crisis, if there are people to be able to maintain the camp itself on its own. they will be educated how to extinguish the fire. what needed to be done. they will be able to take care of themselves and be able to earn. if the people can come out, get the education. they will see the hope and not be the lost generation. we are only talking with refugees living inside the camp, and also in myanmar and our people. there is a very minimal number of [indiscernible] .

we are also traumatized, exposed to these things. physically i may not be there, but morally and mentally i am with my people. we are them, there us. we are affected with the tragedies, the prosecution, they have been going through daily. which affects the rohingya. nobody is there -- mentally people are forgetting these of the vulnerable people. they are a protected group of people. that is according to -- we need to protect them. protection does not mean only waiting for them to give us justice. amines gives us -- it means gives us justice from everywhere. justice means, give them the basic human rights. not only in the camp, but also inside of myanmar that there is a huge lack of. the covid came, the russian ukrainian war came in, dings can come. that is not -- things can come,

there does not mean vulnerable people -- do not make us dependent on ngos. make us independent so we will be able to stand on our feet. write our own stories. make awareness for our people. >> doct we have run ao time willr have to leave the conversation there. thank you for your time, to all of our guests. thing for watching see the program again any time by visiting our website al jazeera.com. for further discussion go to our facebook page. you can join the conversation on twitter. for me, from the team in doha, goodbye for now. ♪

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