Dreams on hold for Rohingya children in Bangladesh camps

Books tucked under their arms, children file into a small classroom in Bangladesh's vast refugee camps, home to more than a million Rohingya who have fled neighbouring Myanmar.

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“They still dream of becoming pilots, doctors or engineers," said their teacher Mohammad Amin, standing in front of a crowded schoolroom in Cox's Bazar. “But we don’t know if they will ever reach their goals with the limited opportunities available.”

Around half a million children live in the camps housing the waves of Rohingya who have escaped Myanmar in recent years, many during a brutal military crackdown in 2017.

The campaign, which saw Rohingya villages burned and civilians killed, is the subject of a genocide case at the United Nations’ top court in The Hague, where hearings opened on Monday.

In the aftermath of the 2017 exodus, international aid groups and UNICEF, the UN’s children’s agency, rushed to open schools.

Determined to avoid permanently settling refugees it said it lacked the resources to absorb, the Bangladeshi government consistently opposed enrolling Rohingya children in national schools and barred them from studying in Bangla, the national language.