THE government hosting a three-day stakeholders’ dialogue on the Rohingya situation in Cox’s Bazar, which began on August 25 with representatives from 40 countries, is welcome. Marking the eighth year since the influx of the Rohingyas into Bangladesh, the dialogue, organised as a preparatory event for a high-level conference in New York on September 30 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, is expected to renew the call for the safe and dignified repatriation of the Rohingyas, who fled persecution in the Rakhine State of Myanmar. In his address to the stakeholders’ dialogue, the chief adviser to the interim government set out a seven-point proposal for a sustainable solution to the protracted Rohingya crisis. The proposals largely focus on the inalienable right of the forcibly displaced Rohingyas to safely return to and live in their homeland in Myanmar. More than 1.2 million Rohingyas now live in camps in Bangladesh, nearly 750,000 of whom fled during the Myanmar military’s brutal crackdown in Rakhine in 2017. In the past year and a half, over 120,000 more have entered Bangladesh as a result of the continuing conflict in the Rakhine State.
All efforts at repatriation have, meanwhile, come to nothing. Since 2017, neither bilateral discussions between Bangladesh and Myanmar nor the trilateral initiative involving China has achieved any tangible progress towards returning the Rohingyas to their homeland, aside from the verification of 180,000 individuals by the Myanmar authorities from a pre-selected list of 800,000 Rohingyas living in the camps in Bangladesh. Such stagnation, coupled with the lacklustre response of the international community, paints a bleak picture for the Rohingyas, an ethnic minority systematically denied citizenship and the right to land ownership in their own country. What Bangladesh has undertaken for the forcibly displaced Rohingyas is already far beyond its capacity and resources. It is, however, the international community and global forums that have failed to honour their words and promises to the Rohingyas. Support for the displaced community has, in fact, diminished over time, compounding the crisis for Bangladesh. The United Nations World Food Programme halved its monthly food rations to the Rohingyas from April 1. Recent funding cuts by international agencies have also resulted in the closure of learning centres for Rohingya children, thousands of whom, according to UNICEF estimates, are now at risk of acute malnutrition.
The committed involvement of international communities and regional forums is, therefore, indispensable for resolving this protracted crisis. While Bangladesh must continue to engage international and regional actors and ensure that the voices of the Rohingyas are amplified globally, the international community must, in turn, demonstrate genuine commitment to the cause. Without such concerted action, the safe, dignified and sustainable repatriation of the Rohingyas to their homeland in Myanmar will remain an unfulfilled promise.
