By Nahian Salsabeel 22 August 2022
The Rohingya have been termed as the most persecuted community and for good reason. As the world nears five years since the last influx of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, the humanitarian crisis has been overshadowed multiple times by global issues. Having been eclipsed by Covid-19 for the previous two years and now the Ukrainian War, almost a million displaced Rohingya refugees Bangladesh continue to remain in a dilemma about their futures.
Even though the local Bangladeshi people had been welcoming to the Rohingya people in the past, the prolonged nature of the crisis has made them weary due to economic and other human security issues. A report by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) named “Forcibly Displaced Myanmar National (Rohingya) in Bangladesh: Governance Challenges and Way Out” has revealed that the nation faces long haul budgetary, political and security challenges because of the prolonged stay of Rohingyas on Bangladeshi soil and as called attention to by TIB chief (2019), “dangers of developing radicalism as the individuals who face brutality are bound to turn out to be more rough.”[i] As a matter of fact, a staggering 80% of the local residents no longer feel safe having Rohingya refugees living nearby as it exposes them to constant surveillance and deployment of security personnel in the region. There have also been reports of clashes between host communities and refugees and between refugees and law enforcement authorities[ii]. The local community is concerned regarding the scale of livelihood opportunities it has to share with the Rohingya community, including work opportunities, land to sustain the humanitarian effort, as well as other economic natural resources[iii]. The lack of interest in repatriating Rohingya refugees from the side of the Myanmar military junta exacerbates the situation, the humanitarian burden Bangladesh must bear as well as the future of the million Rohingya refugees stranded without statehood or refugee rights in Bangladesh.
The exclusion of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees from the bilateral repatriation discussions due to insistence of Myanmar in previous repatriation talks and their attempts at blaming Bangladesh for the delays in repatriation are past indications of their reluctance to take back the Rohingya people. And despite previous progress in repatriation talks between the two state parties, the Rohingya people have been unwilling to go back due to fears of being persecuted again, even though majority of the people have expressed their desire to return. Unfortunately, there has hardly been much progress in terms of repatriation of these persecuted people following the February 2021 coup in Myanmar.
Despite the Government of Bangladesh’s (GoB) relentless efforts to support the displaced community, the Rohingya people continue to live in horrible conditions in the displacement camps. Given that Bangladesh is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and the consequent 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, it is not bound to provide to the essentials that refugee population would need to survive on its soil. As a matter of fact, the official terminology used for the Rohingya people, who clearly fit the description and definitional aspects of a “refugee” according to the Protocol, remains as ‘Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals’ (‘FDMNs’) almost five years after the latest influx of the refugees. While the host state has expressed that the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol are important international customary law[iv], the GoB, due to insufficient international support, has had to shelter the Rohingya people in worse conditions in the past. The Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are not allowed to seek employment or work beyond the FDMN camps and whatever little business ventures they do operate within the camps grounds run without commercial licenses, without paying taxes and often harassed by local authorities. This has also resulted in many Rohingya refugee women resorting to sex trade in order to support their families. The futures of the upcoming generations in the camps are also overshadowed by dilemmas of literacy, as Rohingya children are not allowed quality education due to the red tapes put in place by the GoB to prevent any opportunity for future integration.
On an international level, little has been done to pressurize the Myanmar government to address the issue of the so-called ‘textbook ethnic-cleansing’ of the Rohingya people. There has not been much support for major sanctions against Myanmar, and almost no regional intervention. Gambia filed a case against Myanmar in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on October 2019, alleging genocide and forced deportation, and the Court unanimously ruled that the Myanmar government is legally bound to protect the Rohingya from genocide in January 2020. However, despite these international court rulings, the government of Myanmar is yet to take any actions to comply with them[v].
In the face of such uncertainties, the international crisis triggered by the Ukraine War can potentially completely overshadow the Rohingya crisis. The humanitarian efforts directed towards the Rohingya people in Bangladesh are heavily reliant on international funding, and as international actors direct their funds towards the Ukraine crisis, the humanitarian efforts for the Rohingya may see reduction in already dwindling international funds. In fact, only 13% of the $881 million pledged by international donors towards the humanitarian effort in question had been funded as of May 2022 despite the insistence of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, that the Rohingya crisis will not be forgotten[vi].
The looming threat of hot war between the United States and China can further exacerbate the situation. As the world edges towards new economic crises and challenges triggered by war, the Rohingya community in Bangladesh faces a precarious dilemma. Lacking statehood at home, and refugee rights in host state, these people are stuck in a limbo of what their futures may hold. While state and non-state actors continue to fight for them at international, regional and local levels, lack of any major thrust in recent years have slowed the efforts. Therefore, just as the international community has pledged to fight against the breach of human rights and aggression in the case of Ukraine, it must also bolster the very same efforts in case of the Rohingya humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh.
[i] https://www.ti-bangladesh.org/beta3/index.php/en/highlights/5961-forcedly-displaced-citizen-of-myanmar-rohingya-management-governance-challenges-and-way-forward
[ii] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2057891119865021
[iii] https://jhumanitarianaction.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41018-021-00104-9
[iv] https://www.fmreview.org/issue67/hossain
[v] https://www.cgdev.org/blog/few-rights-and-little-progress-rohingya-bangladesh
[vi] https://www.licas.news/2022/05/26/unhcr-chief-world-must-not-forget-rohingya-refugees-amid-ukraine-crisis/