00:00A rare conference is putting Rohingya refugees back in the global spotlight,
00:05eight years after fleeing Myanmar.
00:07Bangladesh is hosting a three-day conference in Cox's Bazaar,
00:11where refugees are set to share their hopes with diplomats and global partners.
00:16Dhaka says the talks aim to revive reparation and move the world from words to actions.
00:24Tony Cheng joins us now live from Cox's Bazaar in Bangladesh.
00:28Tony, what's on the agenda today?
00:34Well, the conference, the main event is going to be the interim leader of Bangladesh,
00:39Muhammad Yunus, speaking to the gathered countries,
00:4310 major donor countries, including China, Turkey, Qatar, Thailand,
00:49about how to get this story back on the global agenda.
00:54He feels it's slipped away, and the situation here in the camp is getting increasingly perilous.
01:00But here in the camp itself, where the largest refugee camp in the world,
01:04where 1.5 Rohingya currently reside,
01:08people have gathered together to demonstrate,
01:11to mark the eighth anniversary of the Rohingya genocide,
01:14when 700,000 were forced out of their homes in Arakan State, in Myanmar.
01:20They came over here to the border.
01:22Over the years that have followed, more have come,
01:25and they are calling for justice.
01:27They want to see justice for the Rohingya,
01:30and ultimately, they want to go home.
01:32There is a sort of awareness that this conference is going on,
01:35but there is still a growing frustration here.
01:38The Rohingya, who many people call the most persecuted minority in the world,
01:4390% of whom have been forced out of their homes to different places around the world,
01:49many of them here on the Bangladeshi border,
01:53that there is no justice for them,
01:54and they are forced to live in, really, frankly, very trying conditions.
01:59Tony, do those Rohingya that you are with think that this conference
02:04is going to improve their circumstances somehow?
02:12Well, frankly, there isn't a huge amount of awareness
02:15of what's going on about an hour up the road at that conference centre,
02:19but I think people are hopeful in the way that desperate people are hopeful.
02:24This is the only chance they have at this stage.
02:27A lot of people here gathered today for this demonstration
02:30wearing T-shirts, calling for justice,
02:34and I think they are hopeful that Muhammad Yunus will represent their best interests.
02:39One of the things that's interesting about this conference
02:42is there have been attempts to speak directly to Rohingya leadership,
02:47and the people who are here in the camps are going to be going to the conference
02:52over the next couple of days to speak directly to those donor countries
02:56and the UN agencies.
02:59But at the same time, I think it is enormously frustrating
03:02for many of these people here.
03:03The one thing they really want is to go home,
03:06and at this stage, with fighting just a couple of kilometres over the border,
03:10that's next to impossible.
03:12All right, Tony Cheng in Bangladesh.
03:14Thank you very much.
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