Rohingya Refugees - Stateless, But Not Soulless

Who are the Rohingyas?  They are people.

"India’s claim to send the Rohingyas back to Myanmar rests on the notion that the refugees are of Burmese stock. However, the issue at hand is that the Burmese do not consider the Rohingyas as their citizens and consider them to be immigrants who were brought in from Bangladesh during the British colonial rule. Further, Bangladesh, which remains the favourite destination for the Rohingyas facing atrocities in Myanmar, is of the opinion that they are natives of the Burmese state and should be protected there. The passing around of the responsibility of the Rohingyas from one state to another has resulted in this group of around one million floating in mid air to be coined ‘stateless’ by the United Nation." [1]

Is there anyone in the photographs below who does not look like a child of God?  Are all people not created by God and loved by God?

"Those who claim to be Rohingyas ... are Muslims with Asian and Middle Eastern roots .... (Reuters)"  See http://indianexpress.com/article/research/who-are-the-rohingyas-4855585/

"Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingya as an ethnic group [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]"
See http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/08/rohingya-muslims-170831065142812.html

From Google Images

"COX'S BAZAR, BANGLADESH - SEPTEMBER 20: A Rohingya refugee boy desperate for aid cries."
See Google Images

"A volunteer gives water to a child said to be fleeing violence in Burma  Khalsa Aid"
"Sikh volunteers say they have begun handing out food and water to Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Burma."
See http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/rohingya-muslims-burma-flee-sikhs-help-bangladesh-khalsa-aid-food-water-ethnic-cleansing-a7945111.htm

In the midst of this unfolding humanitarian crisis, Kamal Hossain, a true saint, was helping children re-unite with their parents [2]:

"Kamal Hossain, who ran a lost-and-found booth for separated Rohingya families in Kutupalong camp, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Photograph: Poppy McPherson for the Guardian"
See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/05/i-miss-them-so-much-myanmars-lost-rohingya-children-plead-for-their-parents

"A Rohingya boy is brought to a lost-and-found booth in Kutupalong camp, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Photograph: Poppy McPherson for the Guardian"
See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/05/i-miss-them-so-much-myanmars-lost-rohingya-children-plead-for-their-parents

Before it closed in mid-October, the lost-and-found booth was bombarded with requests. Kamal Hossain, one of 300,000 Rohingya who have been in Bangladesh since a previous wave of violence in the 1990s, set up the makeshift centre after finding a baby crying outside the gate of Handicap International, where he works as a security guard. He was able to reunite her with her mother by renting a microphone and calling out her name.

Word spread and, in less than two months Hossain received about 1,500 reports of missing people, the majority children. He was able to reunite about half before he shut the booth down for lack of funds. “I am just a volunteer, I am just a guard,” he says. “I’m uneducated. I need some help like people who can read. I need a salary.”

But desperate people continue to show up looking for answers in his notebooks, filled with the names of the missing. “I’m feeling very stressed now,” he says. “When the centre was open, any separated person could be joined. Now I don’t know what will happen to those lost people.

Perhaps the pope knows.  He is scheduled to "visit Myanmar in November, the Vatican has announced, amid mounting concern at treatment of that country’s Rohingya Muslim minority." [3]  He is also scheduled to visit Bangladesh [4]:

The upcoming visit of Pope Francis to Bangladesh, which will take place from November 30 to December 2, 2017, in Dhaka "is a confirmation of the interreligious harmony that has distinguished the relations between our people for centuries, " Card. Patrick D'Rozario, archbishop of Dhaka, tells AsiaNews.

The prelate was commenting on the news of the pastoral journey of the pontiff, confirmed this morning by the Vatican Press Office. Speaking over the phone in the margins of the press conference organized by the archdiocese, attended by about 80 journalists, he affirms with joy: "The population is already ready. We've been waiting for the news for a longtime. Pope Francis will be welcomed by all, not only by Christians, but also by Muslims and Hindus. This is because Bangladesh has enormous cultural wealth and our presence [as Catholics] is accepted by everyone."

Harmony and peace are the themes chosen for the Pope's journey (see photos with the official logo). Already in the past, the cardinal emphasized to AsiaNews the importance of the Bangladeshi traditions, marked by the "deep humility of the population" a country where “various cultures and religious communities have always lived in harmony." That is why, says Card. D'Rozario Catholics now "rejoice in the news of Pope Francis' visit and are already planning everything." "The visit - he adds - will serve to celebrate this harmony, which is the richness of our cultural heritage in a country where everyone has always respected different religious denominations."

Perhaps the pope will announce concrete plans to help the tearful children who miss their parents day and night find comfort and security when he is in Bangladesh.  Perhaps he will appoint Cardinal Blase Joseph Cupich whose compassion for the poor and the suffering seems boundless to stay in Kutupalong camp, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, for as long as necessary, to reunite the lost children with their parents.

Perhaps the visit will be no more than a political staging at a safe distance away from the suffering Rohingya refugees, and a quick nod to "interreligious harmony" without true and lasting change but with pomp and circumstance and a logo.  The day will soon arrive when the world will find out if the Rohingya refugees will be impressed by the pope, assuming that they know who he is and the reasons for his visit, and if the refugees, who are mainly Muslims, would even want the official logo with the cross, a Christian symbol and the lotus, a Buddhist symbol, as a souvenir (see image below):

From: http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Card.-D'Rozario:-The-Pope's-visit-to-Dhaka,-a-confirmation-of-inter-religious-harmony-(Video)-41624.html

Thus, by having the logo above, the pope has already demonstrated his insensitivity toward the very people he is supposed to help by traveling to Myanmar and Bangladesh.  He might as well save everybody some trouble by staying in Vatican City and donate all his traveling expenses that he would otherwise incur to Kamal Hossain to continue his saintly work in helping Rohingya children locate their parents.  This would be a good first step for the pope as head of state of Vatican City and as leader of the Catholic Church to take in this humanitarian crisis.



[1] http://indianexpress.com/article/research/who-are-the-rohingyas-4855585/
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/05/i-miss-them-so-much-myanmars-lost-rohingya-children-plead-for-their-parents
[3] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/28/pope-visit-myanmar-muslim-refugees-flee-renewed-violence/
[4] http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Card.-D'Rozario:-The-Pope's-visit-to-Dhaka,-a-confirmation-of-inter-religious-harmony-(Video)-41624.html