The refugee relief and repatriation commissioner, Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, on Sunday called on the government to formulate clear policy guidelines to effectively manage the country’s protracted Rohingya refugee crisis.
Underscoring the urgency of carefully formulated and dynamic policy directions to deal with the highly complex issue, Mizanur Rahman said that despite its establishment over three decades ago, the RRRC office was still operating on an ‘ad hoc basis’.
His remarks came at a roundtable titled ‘Rohingya crisis: emerging challenges and sustainable strategies’ organised by the Institute for Global Cooperation Foundation at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies auditorium in Dhaka.
Speaking about the particular challenges camp administrators were facing, Mizan said that the absence of specific government instructions had made it very difficult for field-level officials to respond effectively to the evolving situations at the Rohingya camps.
‘The newly elected government is to form a very high-level committee led by the prime minister to frame a strategy, and we believe that we will have clear guidance,’ he said, stating, ‘At this moment, we do not have any policy.’
‘I do not have even a single office order or instruction from the government regarding my key responsibilities. I have been working based on my experience, based on today’s activities, and with the cooperation of my government and international colleagues,’ he said.
Mizan stressed the need for a comprehensive policy framework from the government to strengthen coordination among government agencies and other stakeholders involved in managing the Rohingya camps.
He also acknowledged that achieving the ultimate goal of repatriation would be extremely difficult and unlikely to take place in the immediate future.
‘There is an urgent call to strengthen government actors in the field and provide clear policy guidance to manage the evolving crisis,’ he also said, stressing a clear policy direction at the field level to address the manifold humanitarian, administrative and security challenges.
The prime minister’s adviser for public administration Md Ismail Zabihullah, attending as guest of honour, expressed surprise that the RRRC lacked clear policy guidelines.
‘You have said that you have no policy, you have no guideline. Surprising for me because this was established long back,’ Ismail said.
He attributed the lack of progress on Rohingya repatriation to what he described as the previous government’s diplomatic failure.
‘But this is a diplomatic failure of the previous government. They could not affect a single repatriation so far because of their diplomatic failure,’ he said.
Home minister Salahuddin Ahmed, attending the event as chief guest, called for a shift in focus from simply managing the humanitarian crisis to ensuring protection and sustainable repatriation of the Rohingyas sheltered in Bangladesh.
‘The longer the Rohingya crisis remains unresolved, the severer the overall crisis will become,’ the minister said. ‘Local communities will suffer, and the Rohingya themselves will also face greater risks.’
Having urged the international community to intensify efforts to restore stability in Myanmar’s Rakhine state creating an enabling environment for the safe return of the Rohingyas, the minister stressed that political solution was the only path to break through the impasse.
As special guest, state minister-2 for foreign affairs Shama Obaed Islam said the crisis needed focused international attention for which Bangladesh was working.
‘We have prioritised expediting the verification process to move towards actual repatriation,’ she also said.
Resident programme director of the International Republican Institute Bangladesh John Fluharty, ActionAid Bangladesh country director Farah Kabir, UNHCR representative in Bangladesh Ivo Freijsen along with other academics, former military officials, diplomats, government officials and journalists also attended the roundtable.
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