August 25 was observed as the “Ninth Anniversary of Rohingya Genocide Day” in the camps of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. Tens of thousands of the displaced Rohingya people gathered to remember the atrocities that drove them from Myanmar nine years ago, with a concerted demand for a rightful return to their home. The world responded with characteristic complacency.
Praise for Bangladesh’s generosity and hospitality is diminishing rapidly. Meanwhile, the source country does not even recognise these people as their own. The international community is glad to see this expensive problem being managed by someone else. The official figure of the Rohingya sheltered in Bangladesh stands at a little over 12 lakh; the unofficial number could be much higher. The noble gesture of opening its border in 2017 to a people fleeing the horrendous cruelties of the military junta in Myanmar gave Bangladesh a moral edge. While this might help certain individuals to cash in on the moral metrics in different international fora, the country has been left to bear the demographic, environmental, financial and security costs of a crisis it did not create.
The temporary situation seems to have become permanent. The initial sympathy has withered. The temporary camps now house more than a million people where food assistance is precarious, education is limited, and legal employment is severely restricted. The system has become a fertile ground for illegal activities like drug and human trafficking. Armed groups and criminal networks allegedly operate inside the camps. Community leaders have been murdered. Residents face extortion, abduction, violence, trafficking and forced recruitment. Rival organisations compete for control. Some of them claim to fight for liberation while coercing the people they claim to defend. They have reportedly recruited refugees to fight the Arakan Army, turning stateless young people into expendable proxies.
It is tempting, but foolish, to criminalise the entire Rohingya population. Crime feeds on hopelessness. A young man born and raised inside the camp lacks a future to anticipate or an identity to cling to. Therefore, the challenge for Bangladesh is threefold: i) it must address the source of violence inside the camps through intelligence-led actions against armed groups acting both inside and outside the camps; ii) it must invest in education and skills development for the people and offer them controlled livelihood opportunities; and iii) it must provide its people the confidence that the temporary guests are not being supported at their expense.
When the Myanmar government delays verification procedures and imposes “security conditions” to stall the return of its own people, Bangladesh cannot adopt a policy that makes it the sole responsible party for these individuals who have been forgotten by others. Then there is the issue of the Arakan Army, which now controls much of northern Rakhine.
Whom should Bangladesh negotiate with for the return of the Rohingya? The Arakan Army cannot be deemed an automatic liberator of the Rohingya just because it has a common enemy in the guise of the military junta. Recent UN findings accuse both these parties of serious abuses against the Rohingya people. It is critical for Bangladesh to onboard all stakeholders who can enable or prevent a return. The international community must realise there is homegrown dissatisfaction over the indifference of the global actors who have taken our generosity for granted.
China, for one, can offer a realistic solution. Because of its expansive investment in Rakhine and strategic presence along the corridor connecting the landlocked Yunnan province to the Indian Ocean, China cannot afford to have long-term instability in the region. As a development partner, it enjoys close relations with both Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is better positioned to bring the ceremonial dialogue between the two neighbours to practical agreement.
Bangladesh should convince China to confront some of the root causes of the crisis: the denial of Rohingya identity, the 1982 citizenship law, and decades of organised persecution by the Myanmar authorities. Beijing’s previous interventions have kept the negotiation between the neighbours alive. Now we need a nudge towards solving the problem. Instead of asking for unqualified “help,” it is now time to request measurable commitments.
With China’s support, a contact group involving Bangladesh, Myanmar, the Arakan Army, the UN and Rohingya representatives can be created. This group can insist on adding children born in the camps to the verification lists and identify protected return zones near original villages (not detention camps). It could finance reconstruction of Rohingya homes in Rakhine under independent international monitoring or UN peacekeeping.
Bangladesh also needs to convince other stakeholders in Asean countries, the Middle East, and Europe that aiding Bangladesh in its repatriation of the Rohingya people will limit third-country resettlement for vulnerable refugees. If The Gambia can help us from a distance by taking Myanmar to the International Court of Justice, our Muslim brothers in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Middle East, too, can help us in dealing with this human catastrophe.
The world sees and knows it. The issue has simply fallen lower on the priority list. To bring the issue back to the table, we must systematically voice the frustrations of the host communities. There should be academic and popular pieces to list the hardships faced by the Bangladeshi communities hosting the Rohingya. Residents of Cox’s Bazar have faced pressure on land, wages, forests, roads, schools and healthcare services. Their grievances should not be dismissed. A durable humanitarian policy must benefit the host population as well as the refugees. Otherwise, international assistance risks creating resentment where solidarity once existed.
And our policymakers, who are comfortable with letting the sleeping dog lie, must acknowledge some of the critical consequences of the continuing conflict along our southeastern frontier, which adds to the instability surrounding a coast that contains energy installations, ports, shipping routes, and major blue economy ambitions.
Nine years after the exodus, Bangladesh is entitled to insist on the repatriation of the Rohingya. Permanent encampment is not a humane solution, and Bangladesh cannot absorb an expanding stateless population indefinitely. The host country has waited long enough, and it does not need to rush the process so that these people, once returned, become our enemies for allowing them into harm’s way.
The Rohingya may serve various interests but remain powerless themselves. For now, we need to keep providing them with education and carefully regulated work opportunities, not as invitations to permanent settlement but as defences against trafficking, dependency and radicalisation. The Rohingya are human beings trapped inside a political and security failure. It is up to us to join our guest brothers and sisters observing the ninth anniversary of the Rohingya exodus and remind the global community of its collective and shared duty of creating a credible road home for these people.
Dr Shamsad Mortuza is vice-chancellor at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB).
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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