Myanmar’s
main goal is to ease tensions with neighboring Bangladesh, not to show genuine
respect for human rights
OCTOBER
31, 202
Rohingya
gather at a market in Bangladesh’s Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia on May 15,
2020. Photo: AFP
The
Rohingya people forced out of the homeland remain at the mercy of the
geopolitics of host countries in the region, with potentially worrying implications.
Bangladesh faces an election in 2023 and the
issue of the Rohingya is seen as important for the government to allay concerns
of its electorate about the sustainability of meeting the needs of such a large
refugee population, and also perceived frictions with locals.
The Bangladeshi government reached an agreement
in 2017 with the Myanmar authorities to repatriate the more than half a million
refugees who made an exodus to Cox’s Bazar after assaults by the military in
their homeland. However, any mass repatriation has yet to militarize, with the
coup in Myanmar in 2021 in effect halting the return of even the tiny numbers
of refugees who were approved for repatriation.
Complicating matters further are the recent
cross-border artillery strikes by the Myanmar military in pursuit of the Arakan
Army, to which the Bangladeshi authorities gave a stern response.
Bangladesh has now indicated that the military
regime in Myanmar, with the encouragement of China as a regional stakeholder,
is willing to restart the repatriation process. The United Nations has made its
own position very clear, that such a repatriation process must be “voluntary,
safe and dignified.” However, given the tremendous political pressures facing
Bangladesh, the concern now is, if the repatriation process is revived, what
form will it take?
If the Myanmar authorities do somehow agree to
take in some numbers of Rohingya, it is highly unlikely that given the ongoing
fighting in Rakhine state that they will be able to return to their ancestral
villages, many of which have been bulldozed.
The returning Rohingya will also certainly be
pressured to register under the National Verification Card (NVC) system, a
condition of which is to agree to be categorized as a “Bengali foreigner,” in
effect erasing their own ethnic identity.
In other words, rather than a full repatriation
process that conforms to human-rights norms, what could potentially materialize
is for Myanmar simply to re-absorb a manageable number of Rohingya, while
failing to reinstate any citizenship status for them or offering them a limited
status at best, and in effect coercing them to live in scattered numbers in
other parts of the country but not as one collective people in their land of
origin.
The goal of such an exercise would not be a
matter of accountability but just to reduce friction on the border with
Bangledesh and continue with the exclusion of the Rohingya from the civic space
of the country, particularly with democracy being suspended.
The international community can play a more
positive role by paying attention to ongoing repatriation efforts and giving a
strong voice to ensure that such processes abide by what the United Nation has
previously highlighted as protection of the well-being of the Rohingya.
SAQIB SHEIKH
Saqib Sheikh serves as project director of the
Rohingya Project, a grassroots initiative for financial inclusion of stateless
Rohingya worldwide, as well as adviser/co-founder for the Refugee Coalition of
Malaysia, a network of 14 refugee communities based in Malaysia. He received
his master's in communication from Purdue University in Indiana. He currently
lectures on media and communication at Sunway University in Malaysia. More by Saqib Sheikh
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