INTERVIEW 'Illusion of stability' hides truth about Rohingya camp

Giorgi Gigauri speaks with The Korea Times at the IOM Korea's office in Jung-gu, Seoul, Feb. 26. Courtesy of IOM Korea

By Ko Dong-hwan

• Published Mar 12, 2019 9:13 AM KST
• Updated Mar 13, 2019 6:29 PM KST

IOM Bangladesh's Giorgi Gigauri reveals the reality of the Rohingya camp at Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, and why he visited Seoul

By Ko Dong-hwan

When the head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) refugee camp for the Rohingya people at Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh visited Seoul late February, he wanted the government here and local donors to the organization to understand a truth undermined by many ― that people are being fooled by an “illusion of stability” when seeing the camp.

Outsiders, after seeing no bodies lying around the streets and not hearing any shots, think life at the mega-scale makeshift village housing 925,700 Rohingyas goes on normally. But Georgian Chief of Mission Giorgi Gigauri said the impression was a mirage.

The Bangladesh-Myanmar border is open to continued violence, protesters at Cox's Bazar are demanding better work opportunities for local residents, and masses of refugee adolescents, without much to keep them busy, roam the streets inside the camp and often cause trouble.

The most anticipated fear factor is the monsoon season that begins this month.

“Continued rainfall can cause landslides in the congested habitat, likely resulting in injuries and fatalities,” Gigauri told The Korea Times, calling the situation an “emergency within an emergency.” He recalled that last year his IOM team managed to relocate 30,000 refugees to safer zones ahead of the monsoon.

“Those at the bottom of hills are safest whereas those at the top are in the most danger because all the trees have been cut down, making the slopes unstable,” he said. “With just a little water and wind, the hills lose stability and the shelters slide down them.”

Arriving in Seoul to raise awareness of the camp and its inhabitants who fled from the violence in Myanmar, Gigauri met a senior secretary from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He thanked the government for its support in 2017 and 2018 during critical times. Korean support allowed the U.N. migration agency to build a deep tube wall and latrines, and to distribute dignity kits to gender-based violence survivors, according to project officer Chae Suk-hee from IOM Bangladesh's transition and recovery division.

“I want the Korean government and academia and private sectors like KT to be aware of their priorities regarding the Joint Response Plan (JRP) that was launched February in Geneva,” said Gigauri, referring to the Korean telecommunication giant that has been providing technological support to Moheshkhali Island in Cox's Bazar. The JRP is the IOM's latest humanitarian plan for the Rohingya refugees that calls for guaranteeing their safety, continued humanitarian support and social cohesion between refugees and hosting communities.

IOM Bangladesh will run the camp until the refugees decide to go back to Myanmar ― there is no set timeline. Until that exodus happens ― after political decisions are made by the Myanmar and Bangladesh governments, and the refugees feel safe to return home ― Gigauri and his humanitarian team “have no choice but to continue to help them,” according to the chief.

“The Bangladesh government is committed to helping the refugees,” said Gigauri. “But it also wants them to leave as soon as possible. With very limited resources, the government has spent lots of its own money and provided people to help.”

The refugees' arrival in Bangladesh in 2017 in the third and largest-ever exodus of Rohingyas to Cox's Bazar since 1978, involving more than 712,700 people. The Bangladesh economy was disrupted, its forest and ecosystem devastated, and the cost of labor and commodities was affected.

Challenges

The camp sits on about 1,500 hectares of stripped forestland and is divided into 34 subsections. The IOM directly manages 18 of them, housing 460,000 refugees. The others are monitored by other agencies such as the U.N. Refugee Agency, World Food Program and UNICEF. Administration of the camp involving law enforcement is controlled by the refugee repatriation relief commissioner from Bangladesh's Ministry of Disaster Management.

One of the hardest challenges in the camp is keeping the refugees safe. It is difficult when all humanitarian workers must leave the camp at 6 p.m. Between evening and the following morning, the workers do not know what is happening inside the camp. Gigauri suspects there is much violence and sometimes killings during those blind hours. It is difficult for police and soldiers inside the camp to monitor the almost 1 million residents after dark.

“If you read Cox's Bazar newspapers, crimes inside the camp are documented all the time,” Gigauri said. “During the daytime the situation is under the control of thousands of humanitarian workers and police.”

The IOM does not have capacity for law enforcement, but can support doing so. In February, the agency opened a police station in the camp, one of two built there in addition to three more being constructed. An ongoing World Bank project is slowly providing lighting for the larger camp region. So far, there have only been lights on main roads and in households with solar panels.

On his recent Seoul visit, Gigauri met officials from KT's sustainable management division to discuss improving safety and health in the Cox's Bazar greater area. He was betting on the firm's ongoing “public private partnership project,” Digital Island Moheshkhali ― a bid to improve and deliver public services to hard-to-reach areas using KT technology. Chae said the meeting also discussed adding the tribes on the Chittagong Hill Tracts to the project's support list.

“The Bangladesh government has been willing to continue its support for enhancing infrastructure, providing inter-ministerial coordination and support, and localizing online school programs through the project,” Chae added.

Another challenge is caring for the refugees' health, both “pathologically and psychologically.” Gigauri noted that the 23 clinics there are “overstretched” with workers under “incredible” stress to tend to queues of patients, 80 percent of whom are women and children under 18. He said that with dozens of children being born in unhygienic conditions every day, the facilities need continuous supplies of medication and vaccinations, on top of a lack of funding, expertise, staff and infrastructure.

Host communities also used the clinics on in periphery of the camp, adding still more pressure.

And that is when there are no contagious diseases ― in January a chicken pox outbreak caused additional stress.

“Remember, this is a primary health care facility for antenatal and postnatal care,” Gigauri said. “If you need any surgery done, you must drive seven hours to Chittagong hospitals. Those hospitals also need assistance because they treat Bangladeshis and another million Rohingya refugees.”

The IOM monitors the refugees' mental health, largely through a community-based approach. Vulnerable people find relief through art therapy, sports and, for women, group cooking called “common kitchen.” Instead of building shelters or roads, Gigauri teaches the refugees to build shelters for themselves and carry bricks. This keeps the people active and involved.

“If the refugees don't have anything to do, their mindsets become completely aid-dependent,” said Gigauri, To empower the people and give them a voice, “We are working with the Bangladesh government so the Rohingyas can be part of camp governance committees, part of aid distribution decision making, and have elected representatives.”

Different

Having served as chief of mission in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, Gigauri said the Cox's Bazar camp was different from his previous posts. First of all, the size ― with 1.2 million Rohingyas and Bangladeshis in need ― is unprecedented for refugee settlement anywhere. Standing on a hill, as far as the eye can see there are shelters on top of shelters. He sees it as “tragic.”

But Gigauri does see some positive sides, too ― the national government, global and local humanitarian organizations, donors and media platforms have altogether been paying consistent attention to the camp for the past 18 months. Twenty thousand people ― from volunteers to nurses, assistants and drivers ― are on the ground supporting the refugees.

“You feel the sense of camaraderie and now we are just a big family,” Gigauri said. “In many crises, attention is quite short. Here, it has been consistent. Every week there is a VIP delegation coming, including goodwill ambassadors, foreign affair ministers, heads of state, journalists and filmmakers.”

A large Korean delegation from KOICA, the country's international humanitarian aid supplier, and the Korean branch of the international humanitarian agency Join Together Society visited the camp in January. KOICA President Lee Mi-kyung, actor Jo In-sung, Ven. Pomnyun and popular TV drama screenwriter Noh Hee-kyung were at the Camp 11 LPG Depot to hand over 100,000 stoves to the World Food Program and IOM. Following that delegation, Hollywood actress and UNHCR special envoy Angelina Jolie visited the camp.

“Culture has so much more influence than any situation report or documentary,” Gigauri said, referring to the visitors from outside. He said he has suggested a candidate to be the camp's goodwill ambassador, but would not reveal the person's identity.