Bangladesh Can’t Allow Any More Rohingyas – OpEd

The fall of Buthidaung Township of Rakhine State, on May 18, caused an estimated 45,000 Rohingya to flee to an area on the Naf River along with Bangladesh-Myanmar border. UN rights office spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell urged Bangladesh to provide protection to them. UN rights chief Volker Turk also urged Bangladesh and other countries to provide effective protection to them, in line with international law. Not surprisingly, with more than a million Rohingya already sheltered in the country, the government has been reluctant to take more.

Bangladesh, a lower-middle-income nation, demonstrated the utmost compassion and understanding for human suffering by welcoming nearly a million Rohingya refugees. The country is forced to expend a significant portion of its meagre resources to cover the costs and effects on its economy, society, and environment.

Stepping into the 7th year, not even a single Rohingya has returned to Myanmar. Bangladesh seems solely carrying the burden of this huge refugee alone. The country is expending US$ 1.22 billion every year for the Rohingyas from her own limited resources. Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar is now hosting the largest refugee camp in the world, with one of the largest humanitarian operations in terms of scale and dimensions.

Additionally, the nation has never received a sizable amount of funding for Rohingya refugees. Instead, the amount of support has decreased with time. While donors only contributed 60% of the required cash in 2020, down from approximately 72% to 75% two years earlier, Bangladesh received roughly 51.4% in 2023 and around 49% in 2022.

The hardship of the impoverished and illiterate Rohingya people is less of a bother now that the foreign funders have refugees to tend to who look like them and have sought safety in their wealthy European society. Every day, the condition in the camps for refugees worsens as they continue to ignore the Rohingyas. The UN was forced to reduce essential food aid from $12 to $10 per person per month due to funding shortfall. The rampant malnutrition in the camps is worsen as a result of this decrease, which comes as Bangladesh already faces a crisis of food inflation.

A further factor contributing to the violence has been the kidnapping, drug peddling, robbery, gold smuggling, and other crimes committed by some Rohingyas, especially young men who have joined armed groups and criminal gangs. For a period of six years, there have been over 500 kidnappings and 186 murders in the camps housing Rohingya people in Bangladesh. 

The southern part of Bangladesh is experiencing an increase in dread, anxiety and public killings due to rising crime rates. Anger towards the Rohingyas is rising. People in Cox’s Bazar fear that because they are now a minority due to the Rohingya population in the area, their safety may be in danger.

The recent conflicts in Rakhine impose a negative impact on the situation, while Arakan Army (AA), breaking a temporary ceasefire, brokered by Nippon Foundation chairperson Yohei Sasakawa, on November 28, 2022, in the wake of ‘Operation 1027’, started to attack junta positions in Rakhine again from November 13, 2023. AA has achieved notable victories in Rakhine State, seized 10 towns (out of 17) in Rakhine including Buthidaung, Mrauk U, Minbya, Pauktaw, Taungpyoletwe, Myebon, Kyauktaw, Ponnagyun, Ramree and Rathedaung. It has also seized over 187 junta’s outposts/bases, including 16 major bases in Rakhine. 

These fresh intense fighting between the junta and the AA impacted directly on the remaining little over than a half million Rohingyas living in Rakhine now. More than 200000 Rohingyas reportedly displaced with the fall of Buthidaung and Rathedaung, causing around 45000 to try to get shelter in Bangladesh freshly.

Bangladesh is already struggling to maintain over a million Rohingyas with a declining international aid. Immense financial burden forced Bangladesh to seek loans for the Rohingya’s well-being. In December, Bangladesh sought a $1 billion loan from the WB and ADB—a financial package consisting of $535 million in loans and $465 million in grants. In such situations, how can Bangladesh welcome any more Rohingyas?

While Bangladesh opened its border for humanitarian ground and sheltered over a million Rohingyas, global community promised to ensure a just and equitable distribution of the responsibilities associated with this crisis driven by persecution. But it seems that Bangladesh is the only country to perform humanitarian duty. 

Myanmar parts, Rohingya, international community and rights groups need to understand that, Bangladesh neither can keep on sheltering Rohingyas for a longer period nor allow any new influx- due to her impact on economy, high population density and national security concerns. 

It’s a shame for international community that they are neither sharing equal responsibility with Bangladesh nor ensuring safety of the remaining Rohingyas in Myanmar. 

Rohingyas are getting caught up in the war between the AA and junta forces. Both the AA and junta forces have pressed Rohingya into their ranks and at the same time have accused Rohingya of helping their rivals. As Rohingyas are not fitting in either of the side, another serious wave of ethnic and communal violence can erupt, that could be even worse than that of 2017. That would be a total failure for the international community, the UN and the rights groups, a darkest chapter in the history of genocide, ethnic cleansing and crime against humanity.