Half 'lost' Rohingya children orphaned by violence: study

Half the Rohingya children who crossed into Bangladesh without their parents were actually orphaned by violence in Myanmar and not separated from them during the refugee exodus as previously thought, new research showed today.

The findings from international charity Save the Children have dashed a long-standing belief that thousands of 'lost' children in the world's largest refugee camp might one day be reunited with their parents.

There are more than 6,000 children known to aid workers in the Bangladesh camps who never found their parents after fleeing a brutal army crackdown in Myanmar that has been likened to ethnic cleansing.

Humanitarian agencies say the real number is impossible to know but some estimates run higher, as many children disappeared into the enormous camps to live with relatives or neighbours once they crossed the border alone. Some came on their own and were placed in temporary care.

Efforts to reconnect these children with their parents have been under way since 700,000 Rohingya Muslims were expelled from Myanmar a year ago.

But this latest data -- gleaned from more than 100 cases of unaccompanied and separated minors in the largest study of its kind -- suggests half these children were orphaned before they even arrived, and that many witnessed their parents' violent murders.

"We knew it was bad, but not this bad. Even experienced child protection managers were shocked by the findings," said Beatriz Ochoa, humanitarian advocacy manager for Save the Children in Cox's Bazar. "This is going to have a profound implication on our work. Some of these children watched their parents die. Can you imagine?"