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London, UK - The Myanmar
junta and Bangladesh authorities are using coercive practices during
the ongoing repatriation process, said the Burma Human Rights Network
(BHRN) today.
On Tuesday, 31 October
2023, Myanmar junta officials arrived in Bangladesh to meet with
Rohingya refugees as part of a long-stalled repatriation scheme.
Reportedly, Bangladesh officials said Myanmar plans to return around
3,000 Rohingya by December 2023. This follows two previous failed
repatriation attempts in November
2018 and August
2019.
Following the attempted
military coup in February 2021, the Bangladesh government and
Myanmar junta renewed discussions around repatriation in January
2022.
“These coercive attempts
to force Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar would be refoulement and
against international law,” said BHRN’s Executive Director Kyaw Win.
“We cannot send the Rohingya back into the hands of the Myanmar
generals who orchestrated the genocide against them. The military
junta is carrying out atrocity crimes across the country and Rohingya
are still being held in open-air prisons. Voluntary, safe, and
dignified returns are not possible in a context like Myanmar and
won’t be until the junta is defeated.”
Bangladesh is sheltering
to nearly one million Rohingya, most of whom fled the 2017 genocidal
attacks against them by the Myanmar military. In Myanmar, some
600,000 Rohingya remain trapped in internment
camps in Rakhine State under a system
of discriminatory laws and policies that amount to crimes against
humanity and ongoing genocide.
To gather the
perspectives of the Rohingya regarding the repatriation process, BHRN
interviewed 15 Rohingya refugees in August and September 2023. Seven
of the fifteen Rohingya interviewed shared experiences of being
pressured or coerced by the Myanmar junta and Bangladesh authorities
to be part of the planned repatriation process.
In Bangladesh, refugees
cited coercive practices by camp-level authorities known as
Camp-in-Charge officials.
A Rohingya woman, 23,
originally from Buthidaung Township in Myanmar and now
living in Cox’s Bazar District, told BHRN about being pressured by
her Majhi, an unelected Rohingya leader, to go back to Myanmar. She
said: “Last month [in July 2023], our Majhi was being called into a
meeting with the Camp-in-Charge [CiC, a Bangladesh official]. In that
meeting, the Majhi was told by the CiC to take a list from their
block as people need to go back to their own country.” She
continued:
My Majhi came to my block
and asked us for all of our identity documents to give to the CiC as
we will have to go back to Myanmar. My mom told them that they want
to go back to Myanmar but only if we can have our safety secured, our
rights, and our own land. We did not hand over our documents [to the
Majhi], but some other people did. Later CiC threatened some people
that if they did not give their name for the [repatriation] list that
they will be denied food and other humanitarian aid.
Another Rohingya refugee
woman who fled Myanmar in 2017 told BHRN about her relatives being
called by junta authorities in Rakhine State to pressure her family
in Bangladesh to repatriate, saying:
The Myanmar military
wants to show the world that they are kind and are letting us come
back. My relatives in Myanmar were called [by the military] and told
to call me and their other relatives in Bangladesh and tell them to
come back. My relatives said the military told them to tell me to
come back.
Similarly, another
refugee, 50, told BHRN, “We were called by our villagers in Myanmar.
They said that the Myanmar military is pressuring them to call us [in
Bangladesh] to convince us to come back to Myanmar.”
In addition to the use of
coercive practices to force refugees back to Myanmar, refugees also
expressed concern over the limited consultation and information
sharing regarding the repatriation process by the Bangladeshi
authorities and restricted avenues to share their opinions on the
process. This was particularly true for women.
During a Myanmar
delegation visit to Bangladesh to meet with refugees on the
repatriation process in March 2023, the Bangladesh authorities told
some women who were invited not to speak. A Rohingya refugee woman,
35, who joined the meeting told BHRN:
There was a Myanmar
delegation team that came to Bangladesh in relation to the
repatriation process [in March 2023]. There was a consultation
meeting with the Rohingya. Some women were asked to join. The
Bangladeshi authorities told the women that they were not allowed to
speak during the meeting. They told the women to sit in silence and
listen. It was the CiC and different departments from the police,
including Detective Branch, that told us not to raise any issues we
were facing in the camps.
Rohingya also told BHRN
that they were lied to and deceived by Bangladesh administrators into
joining meetings about repatriation. Rohingya were told that the
meeting concerned possible resettlement to a third country, but upon
arriving at the meeting site, they were told that they needed to go
back to Myanmar. In the words of one Rohingya woman, 32:
Recently, there was a
meeting held at Camp [exact location withheld for security reasons].
The [Rohingya] people invited were told by the CiC that the
discussion was going to be on [third country] resettlement. When
people arrived, the CiC told them that they had to go back to
Myanmar. People were very confused. They thought they were coming for
a discussion about going to America and other places, but it wasn’t.
All 15 Rohingya refugees
who spoke to BHRN said they would not return under the current
conditions in Rakhine State, which are still unsafe. As shared by a
32-year-old Rohingya, “I have been in touch with friends and
relatives in Myanmar, and they told me that they are facing the same
issues they have been facing since 2012. There is still violence
happening in Myanmar…. We don’t want to go back to a place where we see
there are still protection issues”.
Currently, in Rakhine
State, nearly 600,000 Rohingya remain trapped under a system of
discriminatory laws and policies that amount to crimes against
humanity and ongoing genocide. Since the attempted military coup on 1
February 2021, Rohingya have been subjected to tightened restrictions
on their fundamental freedoms and are increasingly at risk of being
subjected to further atrocity crimes.
All of the Rohingya
refugees interviewed cited the need for restored basic rights, safety
guarantees, and accountability for past crimes in order to return to
Myanmar.
A Rohingya woman
originally from Buthidaung Township, told BHRN about her
experience witnessing the atrocities by the military and her fears of
ongoing persecution if she returns to Rakhine State:
As I witnessed the
genocide in Myanmar and saw the military throw thousands of children
into the fire and women raped and killed in front of me, I don’t have
any hope in the repatriation process. They [the Myanmar junta
authorities] are not guaranteeing our safety and rights. Only if they
ensure our safety and rights, it will be a proper repatriation
process. We faced genocide in our country, and we don’t want to go
back to be tortured and face violence again.
Another Rohingya refugee
said she needed guaranteed rights before returning, saying: “If we go
back to our country, we need dignity, justice, citizenship, and human
rights. We see that there is still torture and violence still
happening.”
Several refugees voiced
to BHRN their desire to return to their original homeland in Rakhine
State and do not want to be sent to another camp. A Rohingya refugee,
21, said:
They are not doing the
repatriation in the right way. We are not hopeful about the process.
They are requesting us to move from camp to camp. We want
repatriation from camp to our [original] home. They [the Myanmar
junta] are telling us that they will put us in a camp first and then
later they will move us to homes, but we don’t believe them [the
military junta]. We want repatriation on our own terms and not how
the military wants it.
Under international human
rights law, the principle of non-refoulement guarantees that no
one should be returned to a country where they would face torture,
cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. Since 2017,
Bangladesh has respected this international principle and not
forced Rohingya back to Myanmar.
However, food
ration cuts in the refugee
camps in Cox’s Bazar made in March and June of this year have
resulted in increased food insecurity for the Rohingya. Bangladesh
authorities have also been intensifying restrictions on livelihoods,
movement, and education for the Rohingya. Together, the increased
humanitarian needs and coercive government restrictions from the
Bangladesh authorities have pushed many Rohingya to consider making
premature returns to Myanmar.
BHRN calls on the
international community to condemn any efforts to forcibly return
Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, where their lives and liberty
would be at risk. Donor governments must provide funding to meet the
shortfalls in the humanitarian response in
Bangladesh. Bangladesh should work to allow Rohingya to have
sustainable solutions until they return to Myanmar to their original
homelands with full rights, citizenship, and justice for the crimes
committed against them. Any future negotiations about the Rohingya’s
return should be made with the Rohingya themselves.
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