Half-million stranded in Bangladesh cry out for end to decades-old plight

By Md. Kamruzzaman

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – The forgotten victims of Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence are no longer stateless, but they are still waiting to be rescued from squalid, makeshift camps.

After decades of being abandoned by both Pakistan and Bangladesh, nearly a half-million Urdu-speaking Muslim migrants are urging rehabilitation in better places in Bangladesh to put an end to the decades-long plight at 70 congested camps in 13 districts.

After the 1971 Liberation War, Bangladesh sheltered those stranded nationals of West Pakistan (now Pakistan) for a temporary period. Every family was provided a single room.

Now most of the stranded Pakistanis are into the third and fourth generations following their ancestors who were confined inside Bangladesh during the 1971 war and are now citizens of Bangladesh by birth.

They believe they deserve the right to get better living facilities as a basic human right of every citizen of an independent country.

"My two daughters and one son were born and grew up here. My husband died six years back and two of my daughters were married and now live with their husbands in another camp. Now I along with my son, his wife, and two grandchildren have been living in the same single room,” Jobaeda Begum, 68, told Anadolu Agency.

Standing in front of her congested room in a camp in Mohammadpur in the capital Dhaka, she added that their suffering knows no bounds, especially during the summer due to scorching heat inside the packed room.

“I’ve been suffering from various diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes. Such a dwelling condition is fully in disfavor to me. But we have nothing to do,” Begum said on the eve of the country’s Independence Day of March 26.

On this day in 1971, then-East Pakistan (present Bangladesh) started an armed struggle against united Pakistan and achieved freedom after a nine-month-long bloody war that Dec. 16.

Underlining that their living conditions are no better than a crowded slum, Begum added that their one and only request is that the government allots some new residential facilities in any suitable place of the country as promised by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina back in 2019.

Like Begum, nearly 45,000 people living in Geneva Camp face a huge lack of basic human necessities, including sanitation and privacy.

Mohammad Mithun, 35, a seller of seasonal fruit like pineapples and papayas standing on the side of a footpath inside the camp, told Anadolu Agency that inside the camp they live in suffocating conditions much like a jail.

- No privacy, no secrecy

A recent visit to the camps found that sometimes even more than one family shares a single room, with their kids just hanging a cloth in the middle while sleeping at night.

“I sleep with my husband and three kids on a bed, and just one yard away another family sleeps on the other bed in this small room,” Moshammad Shapla, 34, told Anadolu Agency.

She added that no family in any camp, also locally known as Bihary camp, can maintain privacy and secrecy. “No human being’s life should go this way.”

Similarly, Jainal Abedin, a 74-year-old stranded Pakistani, added that in the last five decades the number of residents in the camps has increased several times, adding: “On an average six or seven people share a single room in the camps in an unhygienic environment.”

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Mohammad AKhtaruzzaman, 43, said that most of the children are deprived of education.

After completing his higher education at a college in Dhaka, Akhtaruzzaman is now teaching at a camp-based school, the only educational facility in the camp.

“Since my childhood I have been hearing that we would be rehabilitated in a broader place with better living conditions. But there’s been no progress. In this environment without privacy and secrecy, we’re not able to care for our kids properly,” he said.

- Demand for census

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, M. Shoukat Ali, general secretary of the Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee, said the last time a survey was done in all 70 camps was decades ago, in 1992.

“During that census the total number of stranded Pakistanis and their descendants was 238,000 divided into 42,000 households,” Ali said.

Citing their own assessment and some other sources, he claimed that the total number of stranded Pakistanis and their heirs in Bangladesh would now be half a million.

Claiming that the living conditions in all camps is almost the same, he said at the Mohammadpur camp, there are only 120 toilets for nearly 45,000 residents, meaning that there is only one toilet for every 375 people.

“We have to suffer from a lack of sanitation. In the morning there is a long queue in front of every toilet,” Ali added.

“Many of us have already constructed second and third floors, reshuffling their tents in an unplanned way,” he said, adding that this is very risky and there are instances of such weak structures collapsing.

Mentioning the recent disconnection of power supply to 350 families at a camp in the country’s southeastern port city of Chattogram, he claimed that law enforcement very often threaten to cut off their power supply.

Since the 2008 general election in Bangladesh, the stranded Pakistanis have been allowed to cast votes.

“The government is also providing us with national ID cards. Thanks to the Sheikh Hasina government. But what’s the benefit of it if we still lead harrowing lives in the camps?” Ali asked.

“There is no alternative to a new residential facility for the stranded Pakistanis and their future generations,” Abdul Gaffar, another resident of the camp, told Anadolu Agency.