The Bangladesh government plans and is taking allout measures to complete repatriation of remaining 21,982 Rohingya refugees by June 2003 through negotiation with neighbouring Myanmar (Burma),reports BSS of Bangladesh.
As part of the move, Foreign Secretary Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury will visit Myanmar on June 16 to discuss the issue with Myanmar, Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf told journalists after an inter-ministerial meeting at his ministry on Monday, reports the Independent of Bangladesh.

State Minister for Communication Salahuddin Ahmed, concerned secretaries and epresentatives from the ministries of Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, BDR,police and other concerned agencies attended the meeting, the paper further added.

Chowdhury Kamal said the problem would be solved in an integrated approach. Most of the refugees have gone back to their homeland, but a sizeable number still remains in Bangladesh, he added.

Steps are underway to complete the repatriation of the Rohingya refugees by June next year, he said, adding that border forces have been asked to check further influx of refugees from Myanmar.

In 1991-92 2,50,877 Rohingya refugees entered into the Bangladesh from neighbouring Arakan State due to forced labour, land confiscation, religious intolerance, rape and other forms of persecution by the Burmese military regime. The Rohingyas took shelter in different places of the Cox’s Bazar district. The government of Bangladesh with the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) started repatriation of the Rohingya refugees in September 1992 and repatriated 2,32,399 refugees till May 26 this year. The voluntary character of this repatriation programme, which is supervised by the UNHCR, has often been questioned.

However, the remaining 21,982 refugees living in two camps could not be repatriated for various reasons. According to recent Report of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), in camps the refugees live in overcrowded, tight spaces with insufficient water and food. They
are not allowed to leave the camps and are barred from working or growing food outside the camp. At the same time, they don’t have enough food to remain healthy. Fifty-eight per cent of the refugee children suffer from chronic malnutrition. Meanwhile, the pressure on the Rohingyas to return to Myanmar is increasing, while it remains questionable whether the situation they fled in Myanmar has improved.

Today, more than 21,000 Rohingya refugees remain in two camps south of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. They are fully dependent on the relief and protection provided by aid organisations and the Government of Bangladesh. But they do not have enough water nor food to maintain their health, and their safety is frequently threatened, the report added.

The Bangladesh official sources said these refugees, most of them are reluctant to go back to their homeland, are posing threats to security, law and order, and environment and creating social problems for Bangladesh.

However, the NGOs working with Rohingya refugees said that until a political breakthrough is achieved in their home country, a long-term solution must be sought for those refugees unwilling to return to Myanmar. The UNHCR promotes repatriation as the best solution, contending that the security situation in Arakan (Rakhine) State is stable and conducive to
their safe return.

But human rights reports, witness accounts, and testimonies from Rohingyas newly arriving in Bangladesh, state that the situation has not improved. The Government of Bangladesh does not support local integration of the remaining refugees, and the international community has not yet expressed a willingness to resettle them in third countries, the
report stated.

Earlier in a press release, MSF calls upon UNHCR and the Government of Bangladesh to improve the living conditions of the refugees as well as the safety and security in the camps. MSF wants to stress that refugees have the right to determine whether it is safe for them to return home. A durable solution for the future of the refugees has to be found, in which
the voice of the refugee is heard and respected.

The Bangladesh official sources also said that the repatriation of Rohingya refugees would be geared up after the visit of the foreign secretary to Myanmar. Relief Minister Kamal Ibne Yusuf is also likely to visit Cox’s Bazar in this month to observe the situation in Kutupalong and Noyapara camps.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR