A Missed Warning: Bangladesh’s Early Response to the Rohingya Crisis by Habib Siddiqui

Around 2007, during a visit to Bangladesh, I met with the then Secretary of Foreign Affairs. In that conversation, I urged him to reconsider the policy of pushing Rohingya refugees back from the border. These were people fleeing a state machinery that had already embraced the logic of ethnic cleansing. Allowing them refuge, I argued, was not merely a matter of diplomacy but a moral obligation.

His response was blunt: if Bangladesh opened its doors, not a single Muslim—especially a Rohingya—would remain inside Myanmar’s apartheid-like system, and the resulting influx would be too great a burden for a poor country like Bangladesh. I reminded him that closing the door to a person escaping a knife‑wielding attacker is not neutrality; it is complicity. If a desperate individual knocks on your door begging for safety and you refuse to open it, the consequences are predictable—and unforgivable.

I also emphasized that Bangladesh could use the refugee crisis to galvanize international attention and push for a more assertive global response. The situation offered an opportunity to demand diplomatic pressure, legal action, and accountability for Myanmar’s ethnic, racial, and religious fascism - what has been described by Dr Shwe Lu Maung as Myanmarism that systematically denies millions of Rohingya the rights guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

My fear was simple and direct: if the border remained sealed, the evolving genocide would escalate, and tens of thousands would die. A decade later, in 2017, that grim prediction materialized. Nearly a million Rohingyas were forced to flee after the Burmese military unleashed one of the most brutal campaigns of mass violence in recent history. At that point, Bangladesh could no longer say “no.”

The same Secretary later served as an Advisor for Foreign Affairs in the Interim Government of Dr. Yunus. Yet Bangladesh still has not learned to play its cards well. It is encouraging to see Sam Hamdi echo today what I told the Foreign Ministry nineteen years ago. One can only hope that this time, the Government of Bangladesh listens. 

Click here to read Sami Hamdi's interview with the Financial Express: https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/national/new-strategic-imagination-needed-to-turn-rohingya-crisis-into-an-opportunity