Short-term missions are important to Unknown Nations’ partners, but often the areas that the organization is active in are not conducive to short-term mission trips.

Bangladesh is home to the Bengali Sheikh, one of the largest unreached people groups in the world. 135 million of the country’s 160 million people are still in the zero percentile of Christians.

The Muslim people group is welcoming of Westerners, so when Westerners are in the country, they stand out.

“It causes unnecessary attention to really our partners on the ground, and that’s one of the last things we want to do,” Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says.

Veiled women hold Treasures, Unknown Nations’ solar-powered audio Bibles.
(Photo courtesy of Unknown Nations)

Going into a place like that with a concentrated population makes it hard to get away.

This means that ministry done within the country is done almost exclusively by Bengali Christians. They are the ones distributing solar-powered audio Bibles and providing relief, as well as training and mobilizing leaders.

“From a cultural standpoint, it’s a superior approach to mobilize the Bengali Christian community to reach that country. I mean, you’re again, you’re in the high 90 percentiles of people inside of Bangladesh that have never heard of Jesus one time,” Kelley says.

The barriers a Westerner has in the country can be detrimental to the progress of the gospel.

Islam is so ingrained in the culture of the country that, in some ways, to be Bengali is to be Muslim. While Christians can be beaten, imprisoned, and killed regularly for their faith, often their persecution comes from within their own families.

“Think of your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, your aunt, your uncle, your grandparents, totally rejecting you because of your decision to follow Jesus. That’s the persecution that takes place in Bangladesh on a daily basis,” Kelley says.

Short-term teams sent into places like Bangladesh act more like vision teams and prayer teams and can be an encouragement.

“We call it the power of presence,” Kelley says. “You’re there, you’re encouraging them, you’re meeting their family, you’re praying over them, and the vision is being seeded inside of you.”

Please pray for these strong Christians in Bangladesh and for their willingness to share the gospel with a society that rejects them for it.

“We say that there are no lukewarm Christians in Bangladesh. When you’re a follower of Jesus, you’re either all in or you’re not at all, because to be lukewarm, you just won’t survive,” Kelley says.

Please pray for the Rohingya people from Myanmar, that God will be with them through their refugee crisis in Bangladesh, pray for these people who have seen disaster, and have come to a new country without Jesus.

Please pray that God will work through the Bengali people and their visitors to reach the unreached with the love and salvation of Jesus Christ.

Header Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

]]> https://www.mnnonline.org/news/conditions-worsen-for-rohingya-in-india/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=conditions-worsen-for-rohingya-in-india Mon, 15 Sep 2025 04:00:11 +0000 https://www.mnnonline.org/?post_type=news&p=216945 India (MNN) — Refugees or illegal immigrants? India’s Supreme Court will soon rule on which category the Rohingya of Myanmar fall into. 

An estimated 40,000 Rohingya live in India. They fled Myanmar’s civil war, but face persecution in India too.

Philip is a pastor who used to serve with A3. He says the suffering of the Rohingya in India is “even worse than in Myanmar.”

The trouble for Rohingyas in India started in 2017. That’s when militants with the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in Myanmar killed more than 100 Hindus in Arakan State.

“Immediately after the killing, [the] Indian government treated the Rohingya refugees as illegal migrants,” Philip said.  “Since then, the Rohingyas faced certain difficulties, such as [a] lack of legal recognition, poor living conditions, inadequate healthcare, and so on.”

Portrait of a Rohingya woman in Teknaf Camp (Photo courtesy of Mehdi Khoshnejad via Pexels)

Indian landlords and shopkeepers have faced pressure not to rent or sell to Rohingya. Companies are forbidden to hire them. 

“Under the Immigration Act, the CID (Criminal Investigation Department) and police can arrest anyone at any time and send them to jail or detention centers. Even UNHCR cannot do anything to save them,” Pastor Philip said. 

“Since they are not allowed to rent houses or apartments, many Rohingyas sleep at railway stations and roadsides at night, and search [for] their daily food in the daytime.” 

The terrorist attack in India-administered Kashmir this April made things even worse. Pastor Philip says Indian authorities suspected Rohingya Muslims of being involved with Pakistani terrorists. Since then, reports of arbitrary detentions and deportations of Rohingya have surged. 

For example, 40 Rohingya in India were allegedly rounded up in May and flown to the Andaman and Nicobar islands off the coast of Myanmar. They were then forced off an Indian naval ship to swim to the mainland. 

“Out of 40, 15 of them were Christians. This is how they are suffering now,” says Pastor Philip.

International outcry on behalf of the Rohingya has been present for years and is growing. Please ask God not only for justice on their behalf but also for their salvation. Pastor Philip says only around 350-400 Rohingya Christians live in India.

But the fact that there are any Christians among the Rohingya is an answer to prayer. Years ago in Myanmar, A3 (formerly Asian Access) was involved in training leaders among the Rohingya and other peoples.

(Image courtesy of English: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, OGL v1.0OGL v1.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

“It would not be wrong if we say the Rohingya Christians of Myanmar were the [result] of Asian Access Myanmar. The Rohingya believers increased rapidly [from] the year 2008 to 2012,” said Pastor Philip.

But then, the civil war dispersed the Rohingya church, and the work in Myanmar ended. Today, Rohingya live all over Southeast Asia.

“Pray for all the Rohingya in India, including Christians who are suffering from severe persecution and expulsion from the government and the neighbouring Hindus. Let’s pray for them that they may get their daily food, shelter and other help needs,” Pastor Philip said.

“Pray for the Rohingya Christians in New Delhi. In number, they are 34 families. They want to move to Bangalore to escape from persecution. Let’s pray that they may get the needed money [to] move to Bangalore to escape all the persecution and  expulsions.”

Header photo: Noor is a Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh. (Photo by DFID – UK Department for International Development – via Flickr and Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.)

A People with No Place

The Rohingya are the largest stateless people group worldwide. They primarily hail from the Rakhine state in Myanmar. However, their home country refuses them citizenship. The government persecutes the primarily Muslim group to the point of UN-recognized genocide.

There are more than 2.6 million internally displaced Rohingya in Myanmar and almost a million people have fled into neighboring Bangladesh, creating some of the largest refugee camps in the world.

These refugee camps mainly exist in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar region. Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says, “You’ll drive for maybe 30 miles and see different camps. It’s not one big camp. It’s literally dozens of camps that might have 50,000 people, 70,000 people, 12,000 people, and they’re designated to a camp. They have a tent. It’s horrible conditions. And like I said, they’re living like animals. The sewage, the sanitation – you wouldn’t want an animal living in there.”

Needing Eternal Hope

In the past Myanmar has restricted access into the country as well as out, meaning most of these people have never heard about Christ. Almost all of these refugees are Muslim.

(Image courtesy of Aashaa, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

“When it’s all said and done, they remain largely without a Gospel witness,” Kelley explains. “So as they’re being persecuted from all fronts, they still don’t know Jesus.”

Unknown Nations follows Christ’s command to spread the Good News by heading into these refugee camps. They are sending in indigenous leaders to love people, share food and resources, as well as share the Gospel. However, the need among the Rohingya is great.

Not Just Countries, But People Groups

Kelley exhorts Christians to stretch their boundaries of what God has called them to. “I think that when the Lord called us to go make disciples of all nations, I think the body of Christ needs to get to get a hold of that word and understand we’re not called to countries. We’re not called to India. We’re not called to Myanmar. We’re not called to Bangladesh. We’re called to the nations or people groups inside of them, like the Rohingya.”

This means making changes.

“We have to begin going into the deeper waters and the Rohingya are the deeper waters of missions, which are going to require a different strategy. So doing things the same way we’ve always done them will never reach the Rohingya. So that’s a big question, and there’s a lot of ways to address it, but it ultimately comes down to our drive and determination to take serious Jesus’s last words, to make disciples of all nations.”

If you’d like to join Unknown Nations to help bring the Gospel to the Rohingya and other unreached people groups, click here.

Image courtesy of English: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, OGL v1.0OGL v1.0, via Wikimedia Commons

“This same group that has been tormenting the Rohingya staged a military coup in February 2021,” says Kelley, “and that has resulted in over 3 million people being displaced other minority ethnic groups like the Rohingya, who have been just savagely targeted, oppressed, beaten, persecuted, killed.” 

Forty percent of those 3.4 million displaced people are children. This war zone is where Unknown Nations sees gospel ministry unfold. They have been present there for the past 20 years, and Kelley says the Burmese are one of ht largest unreached people groups in the world.

“It’s not like they’re just targeting Christians, although Christians absolutely are a threat to them (the military)  because they have a different worldview. But everyone’s suffering,” Kelley says.

“When you have never had access to the gospel, and this military is so oppressive, you become open to a message of hope. In the midst of this chaos, as crazy as it seems, hearts are open and responding to the gospel.” 

Please, become aware and pray for these tragedies in Myanmar. Learn more about the history of the Rohingya here. Don’t forget about them in the midst of widespread displacement crises across in the world today.

“Every two seconds, someone is newly displaced in the world because of war, violence, persecution, human rights abuses. The Body of Christ needs to come and lean into these situations,” says Kelley. 

“They don’t fit nice and cleanly into a box, like a lot of missions initiatives we try, but that’s okay. Jesus gave His life for these situations.” 

Connect with Unknown Nations here.  

“Engage with organizations like Unknown Nations, send out an email or give us a call. We can tell you how you can intimately be a part of bringing the good news of Jesus Christ into this dire situation,” says Kelley.

Header photo Rohingya refugees gathered in Bangladesh for Genocide Remembrance Day (2023). Photo courtesy of Md. Jamal / VOA – via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain. 

The Rohingya fled Myanmar after being attacked by the military.

Greg Kelley with World Mission says, “They truly are a stateless people group, which makes the situation all the more tragic. Because the likelihood of them getting back into Myanmar is very low. Bangladesh doesn’t want them growing and has shut off the numbers of officially recognized refugees.”

“Meanwhile, babies continue to come out of these camps and the population of Rohingya is growing exponentially.”

Kelley says the government of Bangladesh keeps the Rohingya separate from the rest of the population on a little peninsula near the Bay of Bengal. “It’s like two roads that get out of there. There are checkpoints all over the place. We went through about 10 checkpoints to get anywhere near the camp.”

World Mission

World Mission works among the Rohingya, giving them humanitarian relief and solar-powered audio Bibles.

They have seen many Rohingya get baptized in the nearby Bay of Bengal. Kelley says, “We did the secret baptism service where we came from one direction, and they came from another. We met secretly on the beaches. They ran out one by one and were baptized.”

But afterward, they all had to sneak away. Kelley says, “We couldn’t celebrate with them after the fact. And it’s because they’re persecuted.” Most Rohingya in the camps practice Islam.

Ask God to strengthen these new believers. World Mission is setting up a training center in southern Bangladesh to train church leaders among the Rohingya and other people groups.

The header photo shows the refugee camp where many Rohingya live. (Photo courtesy of Maaz Hussain (VOA), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

“Every three seconds, someone is newly displaced in the world because of war, violence, and persecution,” World Mission’s Greg Kelley says.

Millions of women and children fleeing conflict make ideal targets for traffickers. Aid groups in Europe say pimps try to lure and deceive women fleeing the Ukraine crisis.

“At the end of the day, it’s about people making money, which is horrific when you think about how cheaply they (traffickers) treat humanity, and they prey on those who are most vulnerable,” Kelley says.

“You can’t find a better example [of vulnerable people] than those in a refugee or a displaced situation.”

The longer a crisis lasts, the more desperate people become. Whether it’s the Rohingya in Bangladesh or Afghan refugees in Pakistan, “families are so desperate they will sell their children,” Kelley says.

“They’re looking at the rest of their family saying, ‘If we sell this one child, it’s for the greater good because now the rest of my family can eat.’”

World Mission and its partners blessed 100 families with food supplies, blankets, and audio Bibles. Not only were their basic needs met but they also received the hope of the Gospel.
(Photo, caption courtesy of World Mission)

World Mission and its partners recently saved 80 Afghan girls from becoming one more trafficking statistic.

“They were educated, beautiful; they spoke multiple languages because they had access to education over these last 20 years. They were high-value commodities,” Kelley says.

“They were days away from being sold into the Middle East sex trafficking [ring]. [The girls’] families would have never seen them again; they would have been used, abused, and discarded.”

Pray Gospel workers can save more women and children from traffickers and introduce them to the hope of Jesus Christ.

Support World Mission’s work among Afghan refugees here.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of IsaaK Alexandre KaRslian/Unsplash.

A January fire destroyed 600 more shelters. In March of 2021, a massive fire killed 15 people and left about 45,000 without shelter.

Greg Kelley with World Mission says, “The people live off of these sort of gas cylinders. Think of a propane tank. It’s that type of thing. And there are regular events where they just explode. One just recently exploded, just in the last few weeks. And it caused an inferno to take place, where every house in the vicinity went up in flames.”

Monsoon season

But fire isn’t the only danger to the Rohingya. The region is now entering monsoon season. Kelley talks about the experience. “They live underneath a tarp. And there will be constant, perpetual rains from our springtime until basically the end of our summer (in the United States).”

This makes living conditions incredibly difficult for the Rohingya, Kelley says. “Things get washed away. People are drowning. All kinds of horrible things are happening.”

Ministering to the Rohingya

Plus, freedom fighters and sex traffickers prey on children in the camp. World Mission works to provide for basic needs and share the love of Jesus. Kelley says, “When we responded to this recent fire, 50 Rohingya received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We gave them our solar-powered audio Bibles in the Rohingya language.”

Ask God to grow the small Rohingya Church. Most Rohingya identify as Muslim.

The Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh remains the largest refugee camp in the world. Kelley says, “In the window of 2017 to 2019, they were pushed across the border in the most violent ways imaginable by the primarily Buddhist military in Myanmar.”

The header photo shows the refugee camp at Cox’s Bazar in 2019. (Photo courtesy of CAPTAIN RAJU, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Last week, a COVID-19 treatment center in the camps burned down as well. The Rohingya people fled from Myanmar to avoid genocide in 2017.

A Christian ministry worker we will call Robert works in Bangladesh with The Voice of the Martyrs Canada. He says, “They don’t have a written language. They don’t have citizenship, they don’t have hope to get out unless they escape. It’s this seething, boiling pot of humanity. They’ve had floods, they’ve had fires. There is one church property inside the camp, which is amazing. We’ve been helping with that, but it’s so dangerous. The pastor and his family have to leave every night and sleep outside the camp.”

Extremist violence

Christians among the Rohingya risk violence from certain extreme groups in the Muslim-majority camp. Authorities gave the Hindu minority their own camp to protect them. But Robert says, “They asked the Christians [if they wanted their own camp]. And they said, ‘No. Otherwise, how would anyone hear the name of Jesus?’ That is just a lump in the throat moment. I know about 25 of them that are doing little Bible studies in their shacks, in their homes. We know of about 2,500 Christians in there, but they have it rough.”

Pray many more Rohingya refugees would find hope in Jesus’ name, and ask God to protect the Church there.

Two years ago, Robert says extremists attacked Rohingya Christians who celebrated Christmas. “Three weeks after Christmas, each of those 27 homes was attacked and violently destroyed. People were beaten. The leader of the whole group was murdered.”

“I asked them, ‘Will you turn back?’ And they didn’t even understand the question. They said, ‘We found the truth. Did it stop being the truth?’”

The header photo shows Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. (Photo courtesy of Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

In 2017, the Myanmar military killed 10,000 Rohingya and drove many more from their homes into Bangladesh. The coup and continuing violence in Myanmar mean the Rohingya will likely have no chance to return home any time soon.

Bruce Allen with FMI says the plight of about 1 million Rohingya is an ongoing disaster.  “Just this week, 1,000 little shanty shops that these refugees have set up (in order to do business, buy food, or whatever they need) have gotten bulldozed by the Bangladeshi Government. Now the Bangladeshi government says these shops were illegal. And perhaps they truly were. But it’s what these refugees were relying on in terms of access to household items.”

Bhasan Char

This week, a human rights expert from the United Nations will visit the Rohingya in Bangladesh. This includes an investigation of the island of Bhasan Char, where the government has moved many Rohingya. “Some of the refugees are saying, ‘Oh, what a terrible situation this island is because it’s almost like a prison now for us. We don’t have access to things. We’re locked on an island.’ Bangladesh says they set this island up for about 100,000 people.”

Allen says Bhasan Char will be exposed to storms in the Bay of Bengal as well, though not any more than the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp on the mainland.

How to pray

Many Christian ministries work among the Rohingya. Ask God to give these refugees hope and provide for their needs.

Pray for the citizens of Bangladesh as well. Allen says, “What our Bangladeshi partners are saying is ‘Yes, we welcome the refugees. But we’ve been overrun by 1.2 million additional people. Life has gotten a lot harder for the Bangladeshis as well. They’ve lost fields, plants, farming areas, things like that.”

The header photo shows the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh. (Photo courtesy of FMI)

Vincent Michael of FMI says, “This isn’t the first fire to hit this camp. This is the third or fourth, and this is by far the most devastating of all of them. It looks like 9500 homes have been either completely burned to the ground, or are significantly damaged. 50,000 people displaced, and then a lot of people who are just missing.”

As the fire grew, Michael says people struggled to escape the flames.  “These camps are fenced in. And so as people were fleeing, they were just kind of getting balled up on the fences and these massive numbers of people.”

Bhasan Char

Aid agencies have rushed to get food and shelter to refugees now exposed to the elements. “It may be that there’s greater pressure put on the Bengali government to get people to Bhasan Char, which is the island that they’ve been relocating the refugees to.”

Bhasan Char first appeared in the Bay of Bengal in 2006. Many worry the upcoming cyclone season could endanger Rohingya on the island. As these refugees endure hardship after hardship, ask God to comfort and strengthen them.

The header image shows the refugee camp before the fire. (English: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, OGL v1.0 <http://NationalArchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/1/>, via Wikimedia Commons)