Are 60000 babies born in Rohingya camps every year in India? No, the reports are from Bangladesh!
The viral claim stating 60000 children have been born in Rohingya camps in one year in India is false
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Explanation
A viral image with an infographic writing states that “60 thousand children have been born in Rohingya camps in one year in India. 150 Reasons To Hate Gandhi. Now tell me, have they come for shelter or on honeymoon? There is a conspiracy against the country.” You can view a similar claim post here.
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What’s the truth?
Using terms like “60000 babies born in Rohingya camp,” we began our investigation. This brought us to a February 28, 2018, India TV article. The title of the article is “60,000 births are anticipated in the camps; the situation of the Rohingya Muslims may worsen.”
According to the statement of Dr. Poonam Khetrapal, Southeast Asian Regional Director of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Rohingya crisis, which began on August 25, 2017, has now peaked. Horrifying conditions have befallen the Rohingyas who fled Myanmar in large numbers and made their way to Bangladesh. 2,12,500 Rohingyas have already arrived in Bangladesh; currently, 6,88,000 of them reside in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar. This is the biggest migration of people in a short amount of time. In the upcoming year, there are projected to be 60,000 births among the Rohingya refugee camps. Following the birth of these infants, this community’s precarious circumstances might get worse.
However, this information makes it clear that she is referring to the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh and not India.
We used this as a hint to look up the official statistics figures of the refugees on the UNHCR website.
As per the report of 31 January 2022, more than 46,000 refugees and asylum-seekers are registered with UNHCR India, mainly from Myanmar and Afghanistan.
The UNICEF reports from May 2018 addressed the situation with the refugee camps in Bangladesh. The article claims that every day, around 60 Rohingya infants are born in refugee camps in Bangladesh. It further stated that in the nine months following a surge in violence in Rakhine State, over 16,000 babies had been born in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in informal settlements and refugee camps.
Similarly, we looked again and discovered the most recent information report about the refugees in Bangladesh for 2023. The Office of Refugee Relief and Repatriation reports that over 100 babies are born in Rohingya camps every day, for a total of almost 200,000 births in the previous six years.
All of this implies that, despite the frightening birth rate figures in these camps, the story going viral is not about India.
Conclusion:
We therefore conclude that the widely circulated rumor that 60,000 infants were born in Rohingya camps in India in a single year is false and misleading. The paper purporting to describe 60,000 births in Rohingya camps actually referred to Bangladesh and not India.
