‘Grave concern’ on refugee deal
Bangladesh, Myanmar agree on repatriation
TAIPEI • Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed Tuesday to complete the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees within two years.
The agreement comes despite international fears that they will be held in grim internment camps within Myanmar that may result in long- term ghettos and a “powder keg” of radicalization.
More than 650,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims fled to neighbouring Bangladesh after Myanmar’s military began a bloody crackdown in the northern Rakhine state in August, a brutal campaign that was condemned by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing.
Despite reports of mass rape, murder and the razing of villages, Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in principle late last year to return the refugees as quickly as possible.
Win Myat Aye, the Myanmar social welfare and resettlement minister, said Monday t hat Myanmar would be ready to accept the first returnees on Jan 23. Dhaka, however, has not confirmed a starting date.
State-run Myanmar media reported that construction was progressing rapidly at the 124- acre Hla Po Khaung camp, which will eventually host 30,000 refugees in 625 buildings.
The UN Refugee Agency is not currently involved in the process, but it has said it is willing to play a “constructive role” if allowed.
“UNHCR and our partners need urgent, unhindered access i n Rakhine state, in order to assess the situation and provide support to those in need,” UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said in Geneva.
Myanmar’s recent history of indefinite detention of t he Rohingya minority had made the UN and international NGOs wary of involvement in the repatriation, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“The Myanmar govern- ment’s priority is all about keeping control of returnees pending nationality verification, and that means holding them while they sort people out — which is unlikely to be a speedy process,” he said. “There’s no faith among the Rohingya that they will be protected or treated fairly during that process, and they fear being ghettoized in an IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camp.”
“Where are considerations for protection of the Rohingya from Myanmar security forces who months ago were raping and killing them? Why are basic issues like citizenship, freedom of movement, and livelihoods not discussed now so refugees can make informed choices?”
Despite having lived in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar for generations, Rohingya Muslims have been denied citizenship, freedom of movement and access to basic social rights. They are generally called “Bengalis,” a reference to the belief that they migrated illegally from Bangladesh.
Arif Hossein, a former teacher in a Myanmar government school who fled to the Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Bangladesh after violence erupted in August, said he would return if the international organizations working to protect the refugees are able to go along.
“And if we get a nationality identity card in Myanmar, then we are more than willing to go back. We really wish to go back to our land. They should return our land and also rebuild our homes,” he said.
Refugees fear facing the same fate as some 100,000 Rohingya who were displaced by ethnic unrest in 2012, only to be confined in destitute camps encircling Sittwe, Rakhine’s state capital, Robertson explained.
Several years later, they reportedly still suffer chronic malnutrition, receive minimal medical care and are forbidden to travel freely.
On Monday, the British House of Commons international development committee issued a report raising its “grave concern” about the plight of returning refugees. The report warned: “There is also the chilling prospect of yet another longterm, politically intractable, cross- border displacement where the prospects of it becoming a powder keg of radicalization seem very real.”