On Newshub Nation: Michael Morrah interviews Tearfund's Helen Manson

The United Nations said this week it wants to prosecute Myanmar's military leaders for committing genocide and war crimes against Rohynga Muslims. Close to a million Rohynga have fled to refugee camps in Bangladesh after a campaign of brutality in Myanmar, where they are not recognised as citizens. Helen Manson is a Kiwi photographer and mother of three from Auckland who now works for aid agency Tearfund. Michael Morrah asked her how this crisis compares to other humanitarian emergencies she's witnessed around the world.
Helen Manson: Yeah, so, I would say in all the places I've been, this is definitely one of the worst — in the top two. Just because of the scale of this crisis — so we're talking about just under a million refugees in 10km2, so... And when you see how cramped the conditions are. You know, other refugee camps are so spread out. This one is just, like, really tight.
Michael Morrah: What's the most challenging issue for people who are living here, on a day-to-day basis?
Yeah, at the moment, one year on, we're looking at two things — it's around protection, so not only protection from monsoon, but protection from trafficking and exploitation. So, in regards to protection from the monsoon, we're right in the middle of monsoon season. And it might look glorious now, but you and I know today it's been intermittently raining. We've got sandbags everywhere. This area is on steep hillsides, so it's very precarious, in terms of the risk of flooding and huge mudslides.
Michael Morrah: When you talk about exploitation and trafficking, what do you mean there? What's the risk for those who are in here, in relative safety?
Yeah, so although they are in relative safety, there's a really real risk of trafficking and exploitation. And that comes across in the fact that people are living in extreme poverty. So they're at risk of— they're extremely vulnerable. They're so vulnerable. And so you've got people that are wanting to take advantage of that vulnerability and use them for labour trafficking. There's been reported cases of child trafficking, potentially sex trafficking as well. Because people are desperate for money, they're desperate to keep their families alive. Some of that's voluntary. Some of that's coerced.
How would you describe what the Rohingya people have been through?
You know what? When I think about what these people have gone through, it brings tears to my eyes, because it is so horrendous. These people have fled extreme persecution. Persecuted for generations, but that really stepped up on August 25th, 2017. And so these people have seen their houses burnt down. They've seen loved ones killed in front of them, people's, you know, very lives taken, children— awful things done to children, things we can't even say on camera. They've seen the loss of all of their properties. And then they've had to get into the bush and run for their lives with the clothes on their back as their only possessions. When they come here, what an unknown future. You know? They're arriving into a place where they've got to build themselves a shelter with few materials. They're living on very small amounts of food. Water is scarce. Sickness is rampant. And these are the situations that these people have come from — extremely traumatised, dehydrated, terrified for their very lives.
Is a resolution possible, then, whereby these people would feel comfortable to return to Myanmar?
Yeah, you know, I think most people here would say that they would like to return to Myanmar, but only if they can go in a voluntary way, and it's safe for them, and it's a dignified re-entry, so they're actually given rights as citizens of Myanmar. And that's what Tearfund is really calling on the government to do, is to give these people the full rights they deserve as Myanmar citizens.
What's the way forward, then? Is this issue front of mind enough for change to occur?
I mean, it's an issue that we're constantly grappling with, right? Because we're NGOs, so our main concern right now is on the people in the refugee camps. But for the people that are here, one of the key roles has got to be advocating for their safe, voluntary, dignified return. And right now, there is some pressure being put on the Myanmar government, but there hasn't been much success. Even though there was a resolution to return people, people, don't want to go back. The conditions there are not very favourable. I mean, I've been speaking to so many people in this camp, sitting with them in their homes, and one of the things they've been telling me is that, “How could I ever go back? I would look at the place where my husband was murdered. I don't even have a house. My land was taken from me. I have no crops. I have no livestock. There is nothing left for me there.”
How sustainable is this camp — in continuing this camp, in terms of NGO work and funding?
Oh, look, it's one of the biggest challenges we're facing right now. You know, when a crisis starts, no matter what crisis that is, all around the world, you've got a great amount of public interest in those first few months, in those first few weeks, and everyone wants to get involved, and everyone donates. But the problem we're looking at now, a year in, is that that support starts to dwindle. People don't— It falls off the radar. And so one of the greatest challenges we have is, in a protracted crisis, containing that— sustaining that level of funding so that these people continue to get the help that they need.
What personal struggles do you think some of the staff that you work with face here on a day-to-day basis? I mean, it must be pretty hard work. It must be, at times, difficult and seem a bit hopeless.
Yeah, for sure. I know that some of the struggles our team face are physical struggles. The heat is pretty intolerable. The secondary struggle they would face is the constant trauma of hearing these people's stories — the vicarious trauma of such horrendous, horrendous stories. Some of the worst stuff that humanity can throw up — they are listening to that and trying to help these people along. And then, of course, the work we're doing, we're doing the best we can with the funding we've got, but it's never enough. There's a million people in this camp. We're serving a small part of that, but we're really trying the best we can.
Is there any one particular story that, during your time here, has really stood out for you and affected you, as a mother?
Oh, absolutely. I was here in April, actually, about six months ago, and I met a mother called Begum. She's got four little girls about 8 to 2 years old. And she told me that they were at home in Myanmar, and they heard that the military was coming. And they knew that they were after the men, so they went into their home and they hid her husband, hid the dad. The military bashed in the doors, found the dad — he was underneath the table — and they killed him in front of her four girls. Well, the very next thing that happened is that they took her outside and raped her in front of her children. And as I sat in her tent and I was looking at her girls and, yeah, just reflecting on the fact that that could have been me. And one of the things she said to me was, “I just wish I could give them snacks.” She said, “They're so hungry, and in the afternoon time they ask me for snacks, and I don't have anything to give them.”
How do you comprehend that level of violence and inhumanity towards another person?
It's incomprehensible. It is completely incomprehensible to me.
But you must have encountered it a lot in your work and your travels.
Yeah, and actually there's a really scary phenomenon that I'm seeing taking place, where it's happening more and on a greater level. So when I first started this work about eight years ago, you would hear stories about people being murdered and people being raped, and now it's gone to a whole new level — a level of extreme violence, extreme sexual violence towards people, and just things you and I would never normally think of in our human minds; we could never even dream up the things that people could do to one another — are now happening, and I'm seeing it not just here in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, but I'm seeing it in Syria and in Iraq and in Congo and in South Sudan, and it's quite frightening, actually.
The people here, they've suffered the worst of humanity, haven't they?
Absolutely. These people have suffered incomprehensibly. They have suffered extremely. Yeah, they really have.
Is there a future for them?
I believe there is. It's really our hope that these people would find their way back to Myanmar, to a place where they are given full rights as citizens, and if not that, then they're given full rights as refugees here in Bangladesh. And we'd really call on the government of Bangladesh to do that for these people.
Transcript provided by Able. www.able.co.nz

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