Supporting the Integration of Rohingya Refugees

August 10, 2015

UUSC is working with the Foundation for Education and Development (FED) in Thailand to support Rohingya refugees who have fled ethnic persecution in Myanmar. In particular, FED is working with a group of 51 Rohingya women and children who arrived in the Khao Lak area of southern Thailand and have been separated from their husbands and fathers, who were sent to detention centers. At the shelter where the women and children live, FED has provided educational opportunities for the children, has offered activities to lift the families’ spirits, and is planning courses on income-generating skills for the women.

FED writes of the particular challenges that the Rohingya face as they seek safe refuge:

The Rohingya are in a particularly vulnerable position: in addition to the high levels of poverty in [Myanmar] and the human rights abuses they suffer in their native region of Rakhine, most Rohingya people also only speak their local languages. As a result, when they flee to neighbouring countries they cannot even integrate with the other migrants, and certainly not with their hosts.

FED takes this into consideration as they plan classes for the Rohingya children and work to provide the families with opportunities to integrate with other migrants as they await resettlement.