Rohingya refugees have endured years of misery and violence in Bangladesh, but last month's ouster of Sheikh Hasina, the country's autocratic former prime minister, has given them new hope for the future.
Around a million members of the stateless and persecuted Muslim minority are living in a sprawling patchwork of relief camps in Bangladesh after fleeing violence in neighbouring Myanmar.
In 2017, Hasina was praised by the international community for opening borders to around 750,000 Rohingya who fled Myanmar's military crackdown that is now the subject of a United Nations genocide inquiry.
But in the years since then, malnutrition has been widespread and shootings have been common in the camps, whose residents hope Hasina's ouster will draw renewed attention to their plight.
“We and our children live in fear at night because of the gunfire,” Shonjida, 42, a Rohingya refugee who endured years of boredom, misery and violence in Bangladesh, told the BBC. AFP.
Shonjida teaches at one of the few informal learning centres set up for school-aged children in his camp, giving him a disturbing insight into the multiple problems facing his community.
The centres can only serve a fraction of the camp's families, whose refugee status excludes them from accessing Bangladeshi schools, universities and the local labour market.
Many of its students are malnourished because the decline in international aid has forced successive cuts in rations.
And they are terrified by the sound of rival militant groups fighting for control of the camps, with more than 60 refugees killed in clashes so far this year, according to local media reports.
“We want peace and no more shootings. We want our children to no longer be afraid,” Shonjida said. “Now that the new government is in power, we hope that they will give us peace, support, food and security.”
Years of misery and violence
Hasina was ousted last month in a student-led uprising that forced her into exile in neighbouring India, moments before thousands of people stormed her palace in the capital Dhaka.
The revolution brought to an end a 15-year rule marred by extrajudicial executions of opponents, restrictions on the press and repression of civil society.
Her decision to welcome Rohingya fleeing Myanmar has earned her some diplomatic relief from Washington and other Western capitals, which have regularly criticised her for abuses committed under her watch.
But his government's efforts to accommodate refugees in the following years also came under regular criticism from human rights groups.
It relocated at least 36,000 Rohingya to the previously uninhabited and cyclone-prone island of Bhashan Char to ease overcrowding in camps.
Many of those sent there said they were forced there against their will, with one refugee describing his new home to Human Rights Watch as “an island prison in the middle of the sea.”
The desperate situation in the camps also led thousands of people to embark on dangerous sea journeys to find new refuge in Southeast Asian countries, with many drowning at sea.
Refugees refuse to return home
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who is leading an interim government ahead of new elections, began his term last month pledging to continue supporting the Rohingya.
Many refugees said they had been encouraged by the 84-year-old's first weeks in office.
“We saw on Facebook and YouTube that many of our community leaders had spoken to them and met with them,” said community leader Hamid Hossain, 48. AFP“Now I have more hope.”
But Yunus also said Bangladesh needed “sustained efforts from the international community” to care for the Rohingya.
He traveled to the United States this week and pushed for more foreign aid for the group, with the State Department announcing nearly $200 million in additional funding after Yunus met privately with President Joe Biden.
Yunus has also called for the resettlement of Rohingya to third countries to be accelerated as the prospect of the refugees returning safely to their original homes appears slimmer than ever.
The Rohingya have suffered decades of discrimination in Myanmar, where successive governments have classified them as illegal immigrants despite their long history in the country.
Hasina's government and Myanmar devised several failed plans to establish a repatriation scheme, which was opposed by refugees who did not want to return home without guarantees of their safety and civil rights.
The security situation has worsened dramatically since last year. Rohingya-majority communities in Myanmar have been the scene of intense clashes between the military and a rebel army fighting the country's junta.
“There are killings there,” said refugee Mohammad Johar, 42. AFP“How can we go back?”
