The Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina has urged the international community and the Islamic Development Bank to mount pressure on Myanmar to ensure early repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, last year. “Despite the negative impact on own resources, ecology and local population, we have opened our border to give shelter to a huge number of Rohingya Muslims on humanitarian grounds,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said while inaugurating the regional hub of the IDB in the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka. “I urge the international community to take specific steps to build up pressure on Myanmar to implement the deal,” Hasina said adding that the IDB cannot remain silent, when Myanmar’s Rohingya citizens are victims of ethnic cleansing.
The governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar had reached a deal last year to begin repatriation within two months, but it has not started as the refugees expressed concern that they would be forced to return and would face unsafe conditions in Myanmar if the process was not monitored by aid groups. Apart from the concerns expressed by the refugees the international community too had voiced similar kind of apprehensions. It may be recalled here that Myanmar government had said that it was ready to take back Rohingya refugees. The Myanmar authorities had reportedly setup reception centres what it says is a temporary camp near the border in Rakhine to receive the first arrivals. But the Myanmar government’s plans to temporarily house the Rohingaya Muslims in a large “transit camp” in Hla Po Khaung, northern Rakhine, before they are sent to one of 11 designated settlement areas to live, is seen with skepticism as many Rohingaya believe that these settlements will simply be “open air prisons”. Even UN agency has stated that conditions in Myanmar were not yet suitable for Rohingya refugees to return safely.
The community that has faced state-supported discrimination for decades now is highly apprehensive and worried about their future in predominantly Buddhist state where they have seen their near and dear ones being brutally killed, tortured, humiliated and harassed. No doubt that the Rohingaya Muslims have every right to return their country– a universal right that is binding under international law, enjoyed by every people regardless of where they come from. Since the Myanmar government can not deprive the community of this indisputable right and therefore instead of creating hurdles in the way the government of Myanmar should take necessary steps to ensure the safe, dignified and sustainable return of Rohingaya refugees to their places of origin. More importantly this repatriation process should be carried out under the supervision of the UN so as to make the entire process more transparent and convincing for the refugees besides addressing their legitimate safety concerns. Last but not the least the international community must pressurise Myanmar government to take strict action against those responsible for attacking the minority community and particularly its so-called security forces, who have been engaged in violent campaigns against ethnic minority communities across Burma. Holding perpetrators to justice and punishing them for their crimes will give a sense of security to the survivors of genocide.
