Majhar Mannan :
Currently, about 12 lakh Rohingyas are staying in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar of Bangladesh. It is easy to understand how stressful it is for us to have a large number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Bangladesh signed a Rohingya repatriation agreement with Myanmar in November 2017. But it is unfortunate that despite the agreement, it was not possible to send any Rohingya from Bangladesh back to Myanmar. In 2018, Bangladesh, China and Myanmar began trilateral talks on Rohingya repatriation, but it did not see much light. Talks on Rohingya repatriation have stalled since Myanmar’s military coup in February.
The main interest of the western world including the UN is to improve the living standards of Rohingyas keeping them in Bangladesh but they show little interest in repatriation. However, there is no opportunity or capacity to keep the Rohingyas in Bangladesh permanently, so the Rohingyas must be repatriated to Myanmar at any cost and whatever diplomatic efforts are required to do so. There is no alternative but to call for a long-term solution to the Rohingya problem, as the Rohingya crisis is a major threat to security and stability in South Asia.
We have not seen any vigorous role of the International communities against the country that has perpetrated such barbaric atrocities on the Rohingyas. Even they have not been able to put much pressure on Myanmar to repatriate the Rohingyas. Bangladesh has been working positively for the Rohingyas for the last four decades. The Bangladesh government has to deal with various realities and problems with the Rihingya refugees. There is hardly any possibility of returning the Rohingyas to Myanmar.
The hope of Rohingya repatriation is fading day by day and the crisis is becoming more and more complex. Like in other refugee crises in the world, the UN has so far failed to take effective steps to address the Rohingya issues. Despite assurances from Bangladesh’s close allies and the international community to address this refugee problem, no effective action has yet been taken. The trusted (!) allies of Bangladesh have not been able to put much pressure on Myanmar for Rohingya repatriation. Rather, influential countries are more interested in strengthening trade relations with Myanmar. Experts say that the UN must play an active role in Rohingya repatriation and at the same time there must be a joint initiative of India, China and Japan, otherwise no lasting solution to the Rohingya crisis is possible.
Bangladesh is making all-out diplomatic efforts to resolve the Rohingya crisis and if this crisis is prolonged, it will pose a major threat not only to Bangladesh’s socio-economic context but also to the security of the region. No lasting solution to the Rohingya crisis is possible without the safe and dignified repatriation of Rohingya to Myanmar, but the issue of Rohingya repatriation is still under discussion and it does not seem to see the light of day. Despite various discussions on Rohingya repatriation in regional and international forums, no real initiative has been taken yet.
The UN General Assembly and the Security Council discussed the Rohingya crisis, but no specific decision was made. The Rohingya crisis has lost much of its importance to the international community since the outbreak of the covid-19 epidemic.
The amount of aid available to the Rohingya from the international community is dwindling and the kind of pressure that has already been put in place for Rohingya repatriation seems to have subsided.
The initiative taken by Bangladesh-Myanmar-China tripartite in the interest of China seems to have faltered. Following the seizure of power by Myanmar’s military junta, the solution to the Rohingya crisis has become more complicated and the return process has become more and more perplexing. The international community has not been able to put much pressure on the military junta on the issue of Rohingya repatriation, which is why Bangladesh is the only country that has a voice in resolving the Rohingya crisis at present. Observations show that although Canada, the European Union and the United States have taken some steps against Myanmar to a limited extent, no effective action has been taken by the international community that has put intense pressure on Myanmar.
However, Bangladesh needs to play a stronger role in Rohingya repatriation and seek the cooperation of the international community. A case on Rohingya issue is going on in the International Court and Bangladesh must be extremely vigilant to ensure justice there. The Bangladesh government has only provided humanitarian asylum to the Rohingya but the Rohingya must be repatriated. The dignified repatriation of Rohingyas should now be the main target of Bangladesh.
(Majhar Mannan is Assistant Professor, B A F Shaheen College Kurmitola,
Dhaka Cantonment).
