MSF teams in the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh are overwhelmed by the ongoing outbreak of scabies and are calling on other health actors to take their responsibility. 

In 2022, MSF teams around the world continued to respond to crises, old and new. While COVID-19 was not the emergency it was in previous years, new challenges arose. The war in Ukraine escalated in February; the political, humanitarian and economic crises in Haiti deteriorated severely; cholera emerged on an exceptional scale in several countries. 

As we mark five years of targeted military violence against the Rohingya, executive director Jennifer Tierney reflects on the situation that these refugees face—and how we can do something to end the uncertainty they live in.

The Rohingya people are considered “stateless” under international law. But what does the term actually mean?

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) humanitarian affairs coordinator Gina Bark explains the concept of statelessness and what that means to an individual.

The Rohingya are a stateless ethnic group, most of whom are Muslim, who whose home is the majority-Buddhist Myanmar. 

They have lived for centuries side-by-side with the Buddhist community in Rakhine state but following repeated cycles of targeted violence since 1962 and continuous denial of their rights, nearly one million members of the Rohingya community now live in the world’s largest refugee camp across the border in Bangladesh. 

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) spoke with five Rohingya people living in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, to understand how they see their lives five years since being forcibly displaced from Myanmar.

Representing the ages five, 15, 25, 45 and 65, together they span three generations of Rohingya living in the camps.  They are all current or former patients of MSF.

August 2021 marks four years since the 2017 campaign of targeted violence by the Myanmar military waged against the Rohingya in Rakhine State. The stateless Rohingya people have been subjected to discrimination and denied basic rights and adequate access to services, including healthcare. Approximately 900,000 refugees are now living in Bangladesh. 

Of the 860,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, most live in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. With COVID-19 compounding the poor living conditions—and the recent large fire that swept through the camp—the situation for those in the area is bleak. 

MSF's activities are centred in the ‘mega camp’, a large collection of 26 camps. Bernard Wiseman, head of mission in Cox’s Bazar, describes the conditions the Rohingya currently face. 

Living in overcrowded camps for years on end, without legal status in Bangladesh, was already very distressing for the Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar. The COVID-19 pandemic has only brought greater restrictions, and stress, to the refugees caught in limbo.  

While the COVID-19 pandemic dominated headlines in 2020, there was no end to other diseases, emergencies and crises affecting people globally.  
  
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) continued to work alongside health authorities and communities in more than 70 countries. 
  
From assisting Syrians displaced by conflict to continuing essential sexual and reproductive health services for women and girls, these are ten of our biggest responses outside of COVID-19 in 2020.