The crisis that compelled Rohingyas to flee from Myanmar’s Rakhine state to neighboring Bangladesh following a crackdown of Myanmar military, is pointed out as “a humanitarian and human rights nightmare” by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The past August marks a full year for this worst refugee crisis of 21st century with the plight of those numerous Rohingyas is as abject as ever- no headway has been made in solving the enduring Rohingya crisis.
Serious Needs
According to UN Refugee Agency, about 2000 people were identified as vulnerable- with acute need of food, shelter, drinking water, clothes, and treatment. To address the ongoing and increasing needs, a new Joint Response Plan was launched on 16 March 2018, requesting US$951 million to provide life-saving assistance, including food, water and sanitation, shelter, and medical care to one million Rohingya refugees during March- December, 2018 period.
The most important needs to be tackled immediately are to improve drinking water conditions to refrain people from taking shallow groundwater contaminated with fecal matters and avoid the chances of an epidemic. Food distribution procedure from the aid agencies and Bangladesh government are needed to be revised according to special needs of people, like the disabled. Isolated children are mattering to worry, due to risk of child trafficking. The biggest challenge is the scale of the crisis. According to one UN officials it’s “The scale. We’ve never had to deal with so many people in such a short period of time and the numbers seems to be growing. Every week the arrival of new refugees means that we constantly have to adapt.”
Way forward to Myanmar
In June 2018, The Bangladesh government signed an agreement with its Myanmar counterpart in presence of UN to escort “voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable” repatriation of 700,000 Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh back to Myanmar. Apart from the agreement at face value, lacking the supervision of the UN, blind reliance on Myanmar government and its military can resurrect unfathomable plight of the Rohingyas post repatriation and it can impose the biggest challenge to restore relationships between the government and Rohingyas.
However, the UN agreement doesn’t ensure citizenship to the repatriated Rohingyas. Moreover, ignoring international condemnation and allegations, Aung San Su Ki’s government imposed tough restrictions that only refugees with correct identity documents can return- that will virtually disqualify an overwhelming majority of the Rohingya in Bangladesh. In other words, this agreement was largely an empty political gesture for the government of Myanmar.
Current Conditions at Rakhine and Rohingya’s Standpoint
Although Myanmar government has bowed to international pressure of repatriation, still now the Army is continuing its ethnic cleansing unabated. The lands were confiscated and distributed to local Buddhists, burnt out villages are being bulldozed and surviving buildings are being demolished by the Myanmar authorities. “They seem intent on erasing any trace of the Rohingya villages. Some of it is just a moonscape,” says one independent observer of UN at Rakhine.
Consequently, almost no Rohingyas showed any interest to return and a minuscule amount of them have been repatriated till now. According to an UN official, “there is no meaningful progress in improving relations between the Rakhine and Rohingya communities in the state…if anything, quite the reverse”.
The reality is that without citizenship, right to work etc. the repatriated Rohingya refugees are likely to countenance similar circumstances of what they had fled. Moreover, Myanmar government proposes to dwell the returning refugees in internally displaced people’s camps, guarded by the very security forces which expatriated them and engraved a deep violent mark with extra-judicial killings and mass rape lunacy.
Alternate Wayouts
If safe return of the Rohingyas to Myanmar is implausible, then what is next? Bangladesh is slowly realizing that it has gained a new population of one million refugees – and rising. In current circumstances, Sheikh Hasina government has proposed permanent shifting of the Rohingyas to a newly developed island- ‘Bhasan Char’ to make it more habitable. However, many human rights agencies have argued that the island is prone to flooding and too small to accommodate so many refugees.
Alternatively, investments could be attracted with tax concessions and lucrative inducements by establishing a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) around Kutupalong- one of the poorest parts of Bangladesh. It will create jobs for both the refugees and for native Bangladeshis. This will only be possible if Bangladesh embraces the Rohingya refugees by integrating them in their own society. However, this scheme is controversial as it encourages more influx of refugees. But eventually Myanmar and UN will have to resolve the problem of legal status of the Rohingyas’ which is the root of the problem.
International Standpoints
Instead of asylum, offered to the Rohingyas mainly from the Muslim countries like Pakistan, UAE and Saudi Arabia, a vast majority of foreign countries have mostly kept quite in the Rohingya Crisis. Recently, Washington has proposed some punitive financial sanctions on the Myanmar government. The UN Security Council has also lately discussed the matter and become proactive to collect testimonies, gathered across the camps to press the International Criminal Court (ICC) into launching proceedings against Myanmar. “There is finally a recognition (in Myanmar) that they cannot merely outlast the opprobrium,” Aaron Connelly from the Lowy Institute think tank told reporters.
However, the main hurdles are China and Russia, the two permanent members of the Security Council who are backing Myanmar and giving Veto against any intervention of UN Security Council over Myanmar. Neighboring India, although being sympathetic towards Rohingyas, has not taken any serious measures to curb the menace of Myanmar in international platform. For the Rohingyas however, repatriation is not an opportunity rather imperative, the only substitute to the limbo of protracted displacement.
Conclusion
In brief, the Rohingya refugees are currently in acute need of aid, shelters until a unanimous decision could be taken for their future and the decision should be taken as soon as possible to rescue them from the deplorable conditions, they are currently in. Sustainable repatriation and reintegration of the Rohingya refugees obviously falls to Myanmar, which has deliberately failed to take the responsibility seriously – and beyond token humanitarian assistance, the countries across the globe should commit to resolve this crisis once it for all through continuous discussions and its successive implementation.