Bangladesh Sends 10,000 Refugee Children to School, Saves Them from Labor and Trafficking

Bangladesh is working on protecting around 10,000 young Rohingya refugees against child trafficking and exploitation. Its strategy: opening schools for them so they can receive a formal education and deter traffickers.

The children are among 900,000 Rohingya who fled Myanmar – a majority Buddhist nation which regards the Muslim minority as illegal migrants – and ended up in the world’s largest refugee camp. The school will open in April, and officials expect the move will protect the children from false work and life promises made by the rising number of traffickers.

“It will definitely help,” says Mahbub Alam Talukder, the government’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“When they start studying the (Myanmar) curriculum, parents will be more serious about sending their children to school,” he added. “The decision to put more focus on education is a positive change. It will help the Rohingya children in the future.”