Rohingya fishermen in Bangladesh rely on
informal -- often exploitative -- work © Kyle Knight/ IRIN
DHAKA, 26 November 2013 (IRIN) - The Bangladeshi
government’s recent announcement of a “Rohingya strategy” has some observers
concerned that this could spell a continued crisis for up to 500,000 Rohingya
in the country, while local media reported that a survey will be conducted to identify all Rohingya
living illegally in Bangladesh.
“There are documented and
undocumented refugees from Myanmar in Bangladesh, which is a big risk for the
country,” the government’s Cabinet Secretary Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters in September 2013.
The Rohingya, a Muslim minority numbering approximately 800,000 and living in
neighbouring Myanmar, have long faced persecution and discrimination there, including
being stateless in the eyes of Burmese law.
Violence and inter-communal
clashes between the Rohingya and Buddhists in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, most
recently in June and October 2012, has prompted many Rohingya to flee, mostly
across the border to Bangladesh, which stopped registering them as refugees in
1992.
“The fact that the drafting
process for this new Rohingya strategy has been carried out behind closed doors
sends signals that the government isn’t going to use it for any good,”
Chowdhury Abrar, a professor of international relations and coordinator of
the Refugee and
Migratory Movements Research Unit at the University of Dhaka in
the Bangladeshi capital, told IRIN.
“We understand that it
contains some sort of census – any such ‘head count’ should be used to drive
long-term solutions,” he said, pursuing an argument he has made in local opinion columns.
Rights groups are concerned
about what they have called a “legacy of mistreatment” that the Bangladeshi
government has meted out to the Rohingya. “Bangladesh has managed to further
abuse the rights of the Rohingya, the people that the UN says are among the
most vulnerable persons on earth,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at
Human Rights Watch, told IRIN from Bangkok. “Bangladesh should be prepared to
provide them with refuge.”
A contentious count
Although the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) does not have any information on the
national strategy beyond news reports, Stina Ljungdell, the UNHCR
representative to Bangladesh, wrote to IRIN that the agency “welcomes a
recognition of the fact that 200,000 - 500,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh
and remain here ‘undocumented’”, and she hopes the strategy provides the
Rohingya – whether or not they have formal refugee status—with humanitarian
assistance.
UNHCR jointly administers two refugee camps
with the government of Bangladesh, hosting approximately 30,000 Rohingya. The
rest live in settlements and communities, in what Médecins Sans Frontières has described as “deplorable
conditions”.
“UNHCR understands that the [proposed]
national strategy envisages some form of listing or registration of the
Rohingya currently illegally in the country,” Ljungdell said. She hoped “the
national strategy aims to provide the Rohingyas with a legal status in
Bangladesh, albeit a temporary status, pending a comprehensive solution to the
plight of the Rohingyas”.
Nilfuzar Zafarullah, a member of the
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, which is drawing up the
strategy, declined to comment on the document’s content, citing political
sensitivity and its draft status, but told IRIN: “The government is looking at
the issue of the Myanmar Muslims [Rohingya] in Bangladesh, and taking it very
seriously.”
Boon for Bangladesh?
Some analysts say a solid
humanitarian response on the Rohingya issue may benefit Bangladesh as a host
country. On the UN Human
Development Index of living conditions in 186 countries,
Bangladesh (at 146) ranks just above Myanmar (at 149).
“Bangladesh no doubt needs
to react to this situation better,” said Abrar. “But at the end of the day it
is Burma’s responsibility, and it is the international community’s responsibility to figure out
how to make it work for everyone.”
Rising violence in parts of
Myanmar has focused greater attention on the Rohingya in recent years, but
analysts comment that Bangladesh has hardened its stance toward helping Rohingya refugees
rather than using the issue to appeal to international donors.
“It’s a missed opportunity
to engage with the international community, and turn some of the difficult
questions to the West, such as: ‘If the Bhutanese Buddhists can be re-settled,
why not Rohingya Muslims?’” Abrar said.
Others see the situation as
an opportunity to garner extra development support.
“The government of
Bangladesh has struggled for many years with hosting very large numbers of
refugees,” acknowledged Melanie Teff, a senior advocate at the UK-based Refugees International, which described the Rohingya
situation in Bangladesh a “silent crisis”.
Any international support
to Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugees would also benefit host communities, which
are “some of the poorest areas in Bangladesh” Teff noted.
The Rohingya as well as
indigenous hill tribes are concentrated in Bangladesh’s southeastern district
of Cox’s Bazar, near the border with Myanmar. The region has among the
country’s highest levels of illiteracy and poverty, especially in the coastal
areas, where deforestation has worsened the impact of periodic flooding.
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