[In these circumstances, the exceptionally high birthrate in the camps — 50,000 babies are expected to be born in 2018, according to Save the Children — is straining already-overstretched health services. The boom in babies born from rape could easily lead to a health-care crisis, Cassio said.]
By
Susannah Savage
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In
a tragic race against time, aid workers are scouring Kutupalong, the world's
largest
refugee
camp, for Rohingya women and girls raped by Burmese troops before
they
could flee a brutal crackdown. (Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images)
|
UKHIA,
Bangladesh — For the
thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled a violent crackdown in Burma, a new
crisis looms: The babies conceived in rape are due soon.
Doctors Without Borders has recorded 160
cases of pregnant rape victims between August 2017 and February 2018 in the
vast refugee camps in Bangladesh. That number is expected to rise
dramatically.
Some 13,500 Rohingya women suffered sexual
violence as they fled from their homes and made their way to Bangladesh,
according to the United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA.
“The peak of rape was August, so we’re
expecting to see a surge of women delivering this month,” said Daniella Cassio,
a midwife and lead coordinator on sexual gender-based violence with Doctors
Without Borders. Already struggling to meet the basic needs of the growing
Rohingya population — and grappling with aid shortages and the impending
monsoon season — groups like Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children are
scrambling to prepare for the births.
Since August, around 700,000 Rohingya have
fled into Bangladesh from Rakhine state in Burma, also known as Myanmar. A
Muslim minority, the Rohingya have lived under increasingly repressive measures
for decades, but last year the violence escalated: Refugees allege the Burmese
military burned down whole villages, torturing people and raping women and
girls in the process.
“They target those between 13 and 25,” said
Roksana Akter, a midwife working for Doctors Without Borders who specializes in
victims of sexual violence. In November, the Burmese military released a report
denying all accusations of rape and killings by their security forces.
Madina Khatun, 25, said she realized she was
pregnant as soon as she reached Bangladesh. A few months earlier, her husband
had been abducted from their village. She said she believed her widow status
made her easier prey for the “military man” who raped her.
She gave birth to her daughter Rosina in her shelter
in the overcrowded camp, without help from family or a midwife.
“It’s a lot of suffering to feel, a lot of
shame,” she said.
Khatun takes comfort in knowing she was not
the only one. Many women were raped, she said. “It is not only my fate.”
Kutupalong, the Rohingya camp in southern
Bangladesh where Khatun now lives, is the most densely populated refugee camp
in the world. Conditions are dire. Some families, particularly those with many
children, struggle to get enough food.
In these circumstances, the exceptionally
high birthrate in the camps — 50,000 babies are expected to be born in 2018,
according to Save the Children — is straining already-overstretched health
services. The boom in babies born from rape could easily lead to a health-care
crisis, Cassio said.
Preparation for this boom is difficult.
Because of the stigma attached to being unmarried and pregnant, organizations
do not have exact figures for the number of pregnancies resulting from rape. It
is not uncommon for rape victims in the camps to hide their pregnancies, and
around 80 percent of pregnant Rohingya women give birth at home, according to
estimates by Doctors Without Borders, which means many births go undetected.
Families often give unwanted babies away to
relatives or neighbors in the community, especially childless couples,
according to Doctors Without Borders, UNFPA and Save the Children. Some babies
are abandoned on doorsteps.
Many abandoned children have been brought to
the Doctors Without Borders maternity clinic in Kutupalong.
“We don’t have the facility or the space to
keep these babies,” Cassio said. The babies stay in the clinic for a few days,
but then they are passed on to Save the Children, which has created an informal
foster care system that places babies with other Rohingya families. But without
the backing of the Bangladeshi government, it will become increasingly
difficult to sustain this system as the numbers rise throughout May, according
to Save the Children spokeswoman Daphnee Cook.
Rohingya women facing an unwanted pregnancy
have few choices in the camps. Clinics offer an emergency contraceptive up to
five days after intercourse as well as abortions before 12 weeks, known as
menstrual regulation. Many women either do not get to a clinic at all or are
too late when they do. Desperate, the women or their families take matters into
their own hands — sometimes with deadly consequences.
Akter, the midwife, recalled the one
patient’s case. Her family brought her to the clinic and said she had abdominal
pain. They told Akter she was married.
During her exam, the midwife found a broken
stick lodged in the girl’s uterus. Two days later, she died.
Her family later admitted the girl was
unmarried and had been raped; to “save her,” they paid a local woman to carry
out an illegal abortion, Akter said.
Aside from medical complications, pregnant
rape victims face myriad other risks.
“If you’re unmarried and raped your future is
almost over in terms of your social acceptability,” said Caroline Gluck, a
spokeswoman for the U.N.’s refugee agency. “You’re tarred, damaged goods.”
As a result, many families hastily arrange
marriages for unmarried girls and women who are pregnant through rape. Save the
Children and UNICEF have reported an increase in child marriage in the camps.
Aid groups in the camps have launched
campaigns to avoid that outcome. They also try to identify victims of sexual
violence to make it easier for them to come forward. Pregnant rape victims who
have been cast out by their family and are in danger of violence or isolation
are referred to safe houses, where they can stay until the end of their
pregnancies.
Even then, their ordeal is far from over.
“These women are probably some of the most in
need of psychological support,” said Allison Fog, a psychologist with Doctors
Without Borders. “They are severely traumatized.”
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