Mr. Chair, members of the subcommittee and fellow members of the panel, good evening. Bonsoir.
As someone who has volunteered internationally over the past 13 years, I'm here this evening in my capacity as founder and board member of OBAT Canada, a volunteer-based charity. Our primary focus has been on helping the largely neglected Urdu-speaking displaced population in Bangladesh living in squalid camps for almost 50 years now, but through that work in Bangladesh, I was brought to the suffering of the Rohingya people when the crisis escalated in 2017.
I've personally been to the Rohingya refugee camps multiple times. To say that the Rohingya are a persecuted people is a gross understatement. I was well aware of the harrowing details of the genocide prior to going to the camps, but nothing could have prepared me for meeting with survivors face to face. What can I say to someone who witnessed her husband and young children viciously killed and who then was raped repeatedly by numerous armed men?
There are hundreds of thousands of Rohingya men, women and children, each with their own individual stories of unfathomable cruelty. Many aid workers working with Rohingya refugees have admitted to being left shaken by what they have heard and seen. I can only describe it as a tsunami of misery.
Yet even in the bleakest of situations, the resilience of the Rohingya people is awe-inspiring. The courage of the Rohingya women in particular is unparalleled. Having faced the worst of the worst and now enduring the misery of their new reality, they are trying to survive against the most difficult of odds.
As is our tradition, many Canadians have selflessly responded by giving generously or volunteering on the ground or through advocacy efforts. Early on, our OBAT team worked all around the clock to build and repair shelters, distribute food and other basic items, and establish and operate our health initiatives, as well as safe learning spaces for children.
On that note, I'd just like to take a moment to acknowledge the unanimous vote by our Parliament in 2018, which recognized the crimes committed against the Rohingya people as genocide and thereby brought more international attention to their plight.
The refugee camps in Bangladesh remain overcrowded, the terrain is precarious, there are serious hygiene risks and an unforgiving climate and, of course, there are real risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As of November 11, there have been over 15,600 COVID tests conducted in the camps, with 348 confirmed cases and 126 others either in isolation or in quarantine. There have been 10 deaths, unfortunately.
While these numbers appear to be significantly better than those of the host community in nearby Cox's Bazar, it's important to consider the numbers of tests being conducted with respect to the overall population of the refugee camps. Also, the camps had entry-and-exit restrictions even before the pandemic. Since then, access has been reduced further. While these measures may have helped in the prevention of major COVID-19 outbreaks, they've unfortunately had other adverse effects.
One such example is our OBAT health post in Kutupalong, which used to be reliant on international volunteers to be able to treat 250 Rohingya patients daily before the pandemic. However, we have since had to rely solely on reduced local staff. Our capacity diminished to as low as only 40 patients per day earlier this year. More recently, it has increased to over 100, but not being able to see as many patients leaves the refugees vulnerable to poor health conditions being untreated and worsening, or even the potential of other outbreaks.
The threat of the pandemic has also suspended all schools for months now in Bangladesh, including our learning centres in the camps. These centres otherwise provide a safe space for Rohingya children. We have tried to employ alternate strategies, such as distributing learning material to students to take home and having our educators meet with them one-on-one at their homes, but it hasn't been easy and the quality is undoubtedly not the same.
The large number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh can be difficult to grasp, but I want to stress that this enormous population is made up of individuals. Each of them deserves safety, peace, to love and be loved, to laugh and live with dignity and the right to a better future.
Thank you.