forget their eyes. >> canada's dark secret on al jazeera. >> the united nations is appealing for nearly $900 million to help rohingya who fled to bangladesh from firenado myanmar. -- from their native myanmar. this is "inside story." hello and welcome to the program. we are taking a further look at the plight of rohingya refugees

in bangladesh. the united nations refugee agency has launched an urgent appeal for aid to help them. some call it a forgotten crisis. yet, the conditions for about one million rohingya refugees in penguin -- remain as grim as ever. they fled after the military began its crackdown in 2017, which the united nations has called a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. a huge fire burned thousands of their makeshift homes, worsening and already dire situation. 12,000 refugees have now lost their shelter. before we bring in our panel, let's speak to a photojournalist and revenger refugee -- rohingya refugee. ask for speaking with us. i'm glad to hear you and your family are safe. this latest fire happened on sunday. you have been documenting what has been going on in the camp since then. what is the situation like the refugees who lost their shelters in that devastating fire?

>> i am a rohingya refugee living in the largest refugee camp. as a refugee, i have been documenting the life of refugees almost six years. i saw with my own eyes. now it has been two days i am documenting the life of the refugees. there is no food for them. there's no clothes. there's no shelters. bembo and tarpaulin to make shelters.

most of the refugees in a nightmare. the people are suffering, especially among the fire in the tents. this is a terrible situation for them because they lost everything except their pride. >> let me also ask you about the situation in the camps when it comes to the food vouchers. the united nations has been trying to raise more money for their response. i have not been able to get the funds that they need, and as a result, the wf he -- the wfp has had to cut food vouchers and worry they may have to cut more going forward. how worried are you about that, and what could that due to the situation in the camps? >> the food rations for the

whole of the rohingya community. they don't have any opportunities to make money. most of the refugees rely on rations. already most of the refugees are not taking a lot of food to survive. this makes me feel very bad as a refugee. i have been talking with so many of the refugees. we don't have any income source here. we don't have any sources to make money.

anything like help, mentally, sickness, it affects everything for the refugees. >> he is a photojournalist and also a rohingya refugee. thank you for joining us on "inside story." we really appreciate it. >> always my pleasure. >> let's recap how the rohingya ended up in by live -- in the first place. a crackdown by myanmar security forces targeted the rohingya. more than one million escaped to neighboring penguin -- -- neighboring bangladesh. they are effectively stateless, denied citizenship in myanmar, and those in bangladesh do not have refugee status. let's go ahead and bring in our panel now. the founder of rw welfare

society, a women's rights organization at an undisclosed location on the thailand-myanmar border, chief executive and cofounder of fortify rights, a human rights organization. and unhcr communications officer for cox's bazaar. thank you all for joining us. i have heard you say in the past that no refugee camp is a life for people. it is like a detention. how difficult is life for rohingya refugees in these camps, and how much worse has it button these past few years? >> rohingya have their own land. there is no change, and day by day, the situation becomes worse

. before covid, the people expected repatriation, but covid is almost finished, they hope. in bangladesh, they are treated like animals because there's no education. no proper programs to help them. >> you heard her talk about the fact that she does not like hearing the rohingya called stateless because they are from myanmar and belong in myanmar. i want to ask you about that because a lot of your work is about the fact that the rohingya

are denied citizenship by myanmar. what has to happen in order for them to be able to get past? >> she is absolutely correct. the rohingya have an indigenous homeland. i think significantly, since the crew in myanmar -- since the coup in myanmar, the national military government that formed in opposition to the junta has committed itself to resolving this issue, to recognizing rohingya citizenship in the country. they need to do more to bring that to fruition, but right now, of course, the biggest problem facing the rohingya in myanmar is the military junta, but this is a long-standing issue. governments, militaries in myanmar's history have denied the rohingya people access to citizenship rights and all of

the rights that come under it, and it is a fundamental problem. until that problem is solved along with a litany of other issues that have now been created by the regime in myanmar, until these problems are solved, the struggle will continue. >> we should point out first and foremost that no matter how long this crisis has been going on, the needs of rohingya refugees remain urgent. this group is one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, and the situation only seems to be getting worse for them. the united nations is now appealing for nearly $900 million in order to better help rohingya refugees, but you have been coming up against funding shortfalls. how is this latest appeal going? >> indeed. i think the recent fire shows us that despite seeing a lot of

advancements in the last six years, this is still an emergency and still requires humanitarian assistance. most of the refugees are dependent on humanitarian assistance. we need to cover all of the services, all of the basic rights from food to health to protection to water to sanitation to nutrition. it is a lot of things we are calling for, and it is 160 organizations, and more than half of them are local, been lit as she ngo's responding, and indeed, the needs are still great. we are facing a shortfall. it has to do with several things. we are seeing some of the donors standby, but we also need to recognize that we need to change things. this cannot continue to be business as usual. on one side, we need to prioritize. we need to streamline. we need to see how we are going to support the most vulnerable,

but we also need to start scaling up education and skill development and capacity development so the refugees can access some livelihood, so that they themselves can support each other, so that they can be self reliant and build resiliency. at the same time, it will prepare them for an eventual return once conditions allow them to return. >> when we talk about this latest fire that happened, we have to talk about the trauma that has been encountered yet again by rohingya refugees who suffered and were impacted because of that buyer. you have been dedicating yourself these last several years to providing psychosocial support, especially for rohingya women in the camp. the level of trauma women refugees have experienced is shocking. it is horrifying. i have interviewed many rohingya women over the years who work

raped by members of me and mark -- myanmar military, who saw their children killed before their eyes. are rohingya refugees able to get the type of psychological support they need? >> many are traumatized and every day are facing the problem. this fire, not only the fire, there are so many things happening every day in camp. even with the food, with the food cut, they are desperate. where do we go? we are not allowed to say anything. >> i saw you nodding along, it looked like you wanted to jump in, so please go ahead.

>> i think she is completely right. they live in limbo where they do not know what is their future. they hope to return home but cannot, and they live in this complete situation where they don't know what is happening, and all of a sudden, they hear that their russians are being cut. you can imagine, they live with $12 a month and it is being cut to $10 a month? that is nothing. one cannot even imagine and add them this. their health will probably plummet a bit. we are talking about an anemic population, high levels of malnutrition. it can also lead to other negative coping mechanisms. we can even expect a rise in child marriage. we are worried about the situation. this is why we are calling for more support, sustained support, and we fear that if we do not get the funds, we will have to

make even more difficult choices that will have an impact on the day to day lives of rohingya, which we already heard how difficult it is. overcrowded camp, in bamboo and tarpaulin shelters, where you face fires in the dry season and strong wind and rain that may wash away your shelter in monsoon season, so there is a lot of work to do to prevent this from escalating. >> one of the things i hear most often from the rohingya refugees i speak with, they ask -- why are they not able to get justice for the atrocities that were committed against them? they say, we have documented this. we have shared evidence. we have spoken to prosecutors and investigators. where is justice? i know there are various cases that have been brought against myanmar's military, accusing them of genocide. there was a case brought before the international court of justice. there's also a case going on at the international criminal

court. your organization recently filed a criminal complaint against myanmar's military in germany. what is different about that case, and how is it going, and why is it taking so long for these cases to play out? >> thanks for that. at fortify rights, we share the frustration with rohingya community and others throughout myanmar that the wheels through -- the wheels of international justice move very slow. certainly there are a great number of people trying to speed those wheels up. we have seen a number of cases crop up, as you mention. the complaint we filed in germany in january this year, along with 16 individual complainants from myanmar, including rohingya and representatives from several other ethnic groups throughout the country was filed under what is called universal jurisdiction, so this essentially enables perpetrators

of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes to face prosecution in germany, despite the fact that the crimes were committed outside of germany's borders. right now, we are hopeful that the federal prosecutor in germany will launch an investigation. that is goal number one. goal number two would be the issuance of arrest warrants, and hopefully down the road, in the not-too-distant future, prosecutions, but there are a number of other universal jurisdiction cases. there's a case in argentina as well. there's another effort in turkiye. so this is part of what we hope will be a constellation of accountability mechanisms that will essentially encircle the myanmar military regime. these are people that must be held accountable for these atrocious crimes, and i will add as well that the rohingya genocide and the atrocities we still see on a daily basis in

myanmar, they really do represent a historic challenge for the international community. is the world going to sit by and watch, or is the world going to act and act speedily? we are working towards the latter. >> i know that you yourself have presented evidence to different bodies. you have spoken to the united nations about what the rohingya have faced. are you hopeful there will be some accountability going forward, or are you frustrated that it is taking far too long? >> i am frustrated, but i maintain hope. just now, he says we are now in germany, so these things sometimes make me hope. but i'm frustrated because when

i come back home, when i'm eating -- waiting and analyzing because of the situation we are forecasting and analyzing. so i keep hope, and i believe everyone working together will find a solution, but in the meantime, we have to think about the rohingya, especially about their actual rights, which still are not identified. they are not recognized actively, so this thing is very important for us because for

another 134 will exit, why not the rohingya? we are indigenous. >> let me ask you about another dimension to the rohingya crisis in bangladesh, something i have heard a lot of concern about from refugees the past two years. over the course of the past few years, bangladesh has transferred i think 130,000 refugees to a remote island in the bay of bengal. a lot of rights groups have expressed concern about conditions. bangladesh's government has said that transfers are only on big voluntary basis, the conditions are good. do you have a presence there, and what has the assessment of those conditions been? >> last year in october, we signed a memorandum to support the government-led response and

to help them scale up services. we were getting calls from rohingya who were already on the island who were asking us to come to the island to provide further support in terms of services, so since the end of last year, we have been scaling up services, focusing initially on food, health, wash, education, support overall in the basic services, so we now have a presence. we have a team that works there, and we have missions that go often depending on the needs we identify on the island. the condition is different than in the camps, in the sense that instead of bamboo and tarpaulin shelters, it is stronger structures, so there is a bit more of a housing situation. within the island, the refugees feel safe. they can move freely. it is a different situation in the sense we also see more skill development projects and land development projects in contrast

to what we see in the camps, but at the same time, it is isolated, and we have repeatedly said the sustainability of the project ensures -- depends on the government ensuring that refugees can go back and forth to visit families, for medical purposes, mainly for other purposes as well, and this needs to be strengthened. this is currently not where it should be to keep the project sustainable. >> i want to get back for a moment to the issue of international justice and accountability. many rights groups have called on the united nations security council to refer the abuses to the international criminal court. is that simply not happening because of russia and china? is that the main impediment here? >> it certainly is and has been for a very long time. it is worth mentioning as well that it is not even a veto at the security council that we have encountered and has been an

obstacle. it is more of a threat of a veto. we have been advising security council member states to put forward a resolution that would not only call for the situation in myanmar and the rohingya situation to be referred to the international criminal court but would also mandate a global arms embargo. there has been resistance to advance a resolution in that regard. we do hope member states will move forward with that, but i want to comment briefly on the situation in the camps in bangladesh. the situation in the cans as well as on the island in our view constitutes a situation of mass armed detention. we have to call it what it is. this is a community of people whose human potential is being completely swallowed by these violations that they are facing on a daily basis. justice and accountability will

be a big part of that, but the government of bangladesh could make some very quick movements right now to address some of these issues regarding freedom of movement and other rights. >> we only have a couple of minutes left, but let me ask you, with regard to the association of southeast asian nations, they have been criticized in the past for failing to respond effectively to the rohingya crisis. do you think we will see them do more, and what kind of role can they play? >> i see on -- asean has been largely ineffective and part of the problem, if it's a failure to push for justice and accountability or authorities in asean states participating in the human trafficking of rohingya, which we have documented at length. there are some glimmers of hope.

malaysia has certainly found its voice with regard to calling for justice and accountability and advocating for the rights of the rohingya and all the people of myanmar. indonesia is the chair right now, so we are hopeful indonesia will be able to move that bloc a little bit closer to a more respectable position with regard to human rights. right now, the way that asean is dealing with the military junta in myanmar and the way they have dealt with mass atrocities right in its neighborhood is really -- you know, it is indicative of the bloc's inability or unwillingness to address these issues. it really needs to change. >> there are so many crises going on simultaneously in the world right now. the ukraine war being just one of them. how difficult us all that make it for you and your colleagues

to ensure that the rohingya get the attention they need? so many refugees i think would say the world just continues to ignore them. >> indeed, it is a great challenge that we are facing, and there's crisis everywhere. we just saw it with the earthquake in syria and turkey. it is something new, and they will also need support, so we are thinking differently, and we need to do that fast, so we are tapping into new funds and looking into development in, looking to work with new partners like world bank or asian development anchor, but -- asian development bank, but we also need to start thing of the private sector. we are providing women who are heads of households are women who work mostly sustaining their family on their own, providing them with access to livelihoods in the sense that they are learning to sew, they are

producing sanitary napkins, and the project is now funded by a japanese company, and this makes it easier to find funding. if we can scale up the skill development projects and access to livelihoods which would benefit everyone, including and in particular the refugees, we can also tap into private funding. this would be very important because we need to diversify as we see other crises coming up. >> we have run out of time, so we have to leave the conversation there. thank you so much to all of our guests. and thank you, too, for watching. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website, and for further discussion, go to our facebook page. you can also join the conversation on twitter. for me and the whole team here, bye for now.

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