Host community faced challenges for lowered labour costs: RIB study

Working-class people in host communities near Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar faced occupational challenges as Rohingyas could be hired as labourer at lower cost.

Besides, some Rohingyas were involved in selling relief materials, especially gas cylinders, which caused shrinkage of occupation for local firewood sellers.

These were revealed in a research conducted by Research Initiative, Bangladesh (RIB) on six groups of people in the host community and six groups in Rohingya community at four camps in Teknaf and Ukhiya.

Findings of the research were shared yesterday during a webinar on "Building Capacities of Local Communities to Mitigate Problems Created by the Rohingya Influx in Cox's Bazar".

Field work and a dialogue with NGOs, humanitarian actors, academics for the research were conducted in two phases -- from May 2019 to March 2020.

Sharing the findings, RIB Executive Director Meghna Guhathakurta said all respondents in Rohingya community wished to return to their homeland in Myanmar, but not unless they feel safe and secured there.

Also, some Rohingyas in Teknaf camps said they do not want to be relocated to Bhasan Char, Meghna said.

As reason, they mentioned they were inhabitants of hilly areas in Myanmar, and were in fear of living in a coastal area.

The respondents in the host community included vendors, drivers, firewood sellers, butchers, and housewives.

Respondents in host community expressed grievances that they were not recognised accordingly for assistance provided during the initial stage of the influx in August 2017.

On the other hand, Rohingyas expressed concerns about living conditions, health, education, sanitation, and birth registration of their children.

They also shared incidents of domestic violence and child marriage, and said their mobility was restricted. They also shared about lack of justice within their "internal justice system".

RIB found that people in the host community filed about 70 applications under the Right to Information Act 2009 between November 2019 and February 2020, mainly seeking information regarding social safety net programmes and agricultural services.

Although information was provided against a few applications, they were benefited from such steps since some of them started to get senior citizen allowance, said Meghna Guhathakurta.

While there was lack in effort to promote the RTI law and its benefit among mass people, such use of the law in limited scope was encouraging, said Shamsul Bari, chairman of RIB.