MYANMAR Cox’s Bazar, Fr. Gomes: my mission as a “good Samaritan” among Rohingya refugees

Seven years after the massive flight of hundreds of thousands of members of Myanmar’s Muslim minority, the situation in Bangladesh’s reception centres remains critical. This is the story of a Jesuit who has been involved in aid and reception work for years. Dhaka has limited resources, but stability and peace are needed in the former Burma before repatriating them.

Cox’s Bazar () – “The situation is more or less the same. Violence in the camps continues, with incidents of theft, vandalism, murders and kidnappings occurring as before” and “there are no links with the protest movement”. seven years Since the tragic 25th of August 2017, when more than 700,000 Rohingya men, women and children fled Myanmar in haste, seeking refuge in Bangladesh to escape the brutality of the Burmese army. However, in the words of the Jesuit Father Jerry Gomes, responsible for the programs of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in the South Asian country, a still critical panorama emerges for the Muslim minority of the western state of Rakhine. The initial hopes of a solution, explains the 56-year-old priest, have vanished in a panorama of increasing complexity. And violence.

Since April 2020, Fr Gomes has been responsible for the programmes in Bangladesh of JRS, the international Catholic refugee support organisation founded in 1980 and now present in 58 countries. In the Asian country, he has been working for seven years in Cox’s Bazar, where he works alongside the local Caritas to bring help and comfort to Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, especially children and adolescents, also taking care of their mental well-being and psychological support. Since its creation in 2018, it has managed 11 centres (Multipurpose Centres for Children and Adolescents) that care for 6,132 children and adolescents, 1,879 pregnant and lactating mothers and 2,500 caregivers. To date, seven Jesuits and two lay people, together with 19 Bangladeshi employees and 42 volunteers, work in collaboration with Caritas Bangladesh, thanks also to donor funding raised by JRS.

The cleric explains how the ongoing civil war in Myanmar is fuelling the exodus, while an increasing number of Rohingya continue to try to escape persecution. In this regard, he recalls the most recent incidentin early August, which resulted in the deaths of more than 200 people in a drone attack, with responsibility shared between the Burmese coup army and the Arakan Army. “The Rohingya have little confidence in the rebel groups or the military. The rebel groups,” says Fr Gomes, “are more interested in establishing democracy, while the military wants to maintain the rule of the generals.” However, there is one point of common interest: “Both the military and the rebel groups,” says the priest, who lives in Cox’s Bazar, near the refugee camps, “are not interested in integrating the Rohingya into their society.”

The priest stressed the importance of the international community’s intervention, because Dhaka alone cannot cope with and resolve the Rohingya emergency, especially because of its “limited resources.” “The international community,” he continued, “must address the issue of repatriation, since Bangladesh cannot hold them for long,” and identify a “lasting solution.” “The repatriation of the Rohingya from Bangladesh to Myanmar is not a viable solution if, first of all,” he added, “a peaceful atmosphere is not created in Myanmar that is conducive to the living in peace and harmony of all ethnic communities.” [Mientras los rohingya estén en nuestro país como huéspedes, tenemos que quererlos y cuidarlos». 

P. Gomes lleva el testimonio de Cristo en su ministerio junto a los refugiados musulmanes de Myanmar, reviviendo las palabras del Papa Francisco pronunciadas en Daca el 1 de diciembre de 2017 tras reunirse con 16 rohingya y escuchar su trágica historia. El pontífice y la Iglesia católica, subraya el jesuita, «piensan que ninguna comunidad debe ser dejada atrás» y para ello recuerda la figura del «Buen Samaritano» del Evangelio de Lucas, al servicio del «extranjero en apuros». De 2019 a 2023, el JRS Bangladés ha logrado avances significativos en el servicio a los niños y adolescentes rohingya (de 0 a 18 años) mediante la integración de la educación, la atención a la salud mental y la educación para la paz. La educación informal, la formación profesional y la incidencia política han profundizado en temas clave, incluidos los servicios especiales para niños con discapacidades. La formación profesional y los esfuerzos de capacitación también han fortalecido a la comunidad rohingya.

Los retos, prosigue, incluyen el impacto de los disturbios políticos de Myanmar en los campos rohingya, el aumento de la violencia y la necesidad de asentamientos ecológicos y proyectos de cohesión social. Las iniciativas educativas son cruciales, con 400.000 niños rohingya en edad escolar en los campos, pero sólo 300.000 acuden a centros de aprendizaje. Un déficit de financiación del 70% dificulta los esfuerzos, y es necesario reforzar la rendición de cuentas, la atención al personal y la alineación con prioridades organizativas como la protección y la espiritualidad ignaciana». El P. Gomes insiste en que la repatriación por sí sola no es una solución para los rohingya si antes no se garantiza la paz en Myanmar. Al mismo tiempo, Bangladés «con sus limitados recursos no puede acogerlos indefinidamente; la comunidad internacional debe encontrar una solución duradera. Mientras tanto, es esencial cuidar de los rohingya», concluye, “como huéspedes, tal y como ha subrayado el Papa Francisco, que ha reconocido su difícil situación como una profunda cuestión humanitaria”.