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. 

Canberra is well placed to broker a new deal for resettling the region’s most vulnerable refugees.

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.

In the aftermath of communal violence in Rakhine state, Myanmar that erupted in 2012, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have been forced to live in squalid, overcrowded camps in Rakhine state for the past 10 years. Movement restrictions mean they are denied access to healthcare services, livelihoods opportunities and education.

The Rohingya are a stateless people and one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, but their struggle has been largely forgotten.

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is calling for Australians to #VoteForHumanity in May 2022 and to ask our leaders to address their plight.

Following a tumultuous year which saw a military takeover, horrific violence and widespread civil disobedience, Myanmar’s public healthcare system remains in disarray. Most medical staff remain on strike, and the devastating COVID-19 outbreak has overwhelmed hospitals. 

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.