The human rights of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have to be protected in a sympathetic manner until problems associated with the Rohingya issue are resolved, according to a former chief adviser to a caretaker government of Bangladesh, Justice Muhammad Habubur Rahman, at a Rohingya publication ceremony at Dhaka University on August 7.

The Justice made the statement while he was speaking at the publication ceremony of a book entitled “The Plight of the Stateless Rohingyas -- Responses of the State, Society and the International Community”, at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban (Hall), in Dhaka University.

“The Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are leading a very miserable life. We must not forget the miseries of around 10 million people of Bangladesh who took shelter as refugees in India and Burma during the Bangladesh War of Liberation in 1971,” he said.

“The constitution of the country has guaranteed the human rights of both the people of Bangladesh and its refugees and their access to justice. We are proud that our constitution has not created any difference between the human rights of people of the country and refugees living in it,” Justice Habibur Rahaman said

Prof Imtiaz Ahmed, a teacher of the Department of International Relations of Dhaka University, edited the book published by University Press Limited.
“The international community has to create pressure on Burma to come forward to resolve the problems relating to the Rohingya refugees as they are the citizens of that country,” Prof Imtiaz said
“The problem regarding Rohingya refugees is no longer a problem for Bangladesh only, rather a regional issue. And it would be a bigger problem for the region in the future,” he said.

Prof Delwar Hossain, chairman of department of International Relations of Dhaka University, also spoke at the ceremony.

The Boston-based Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said in a report the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) must “assert its mandate to protect and assist” Muslim Rohingya, who are languishing in an unregistered refugee camp in Bangladesh.

The Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) issued an emergency report on March 2010 called “Stateless and Starving: Persecuted Rohingya Flee Burma and Starve in Bangladesh”. This report reveals a PHR emergency assessment of 18.3% acute malnutrition in children. This level of child malnutrition is “considered critical” by the World Health Organization (WHO), which recommends in such crises that adequate food aid be delivered to the entire population to avoid high numbers of preventable deaths.”

The Bangladeshi government’s ongoing crackdown against Rohingya refugees appears to be coordinated by local authorities, police, border security forces, and the ruling political elite. Bangladeshis near the southern coastal town of Cox’s Bazar have formed Rohingya “resistance committees” and have led protest rallies that advocate the expulsion of Burmese refugees.

Bangladeshi authorities threaten villagers with arrest if they do not turn in their Rohingya neighbors. Local media disseminate ominous anti-Rohingya propaganda in editorials and opinion pieces, all of which incite xenophobic antagonism among local inhabitants, the PHP report said.

Unsanitary conditions at the camp had left more than half of the children suffering from diarrhea and many refugees reported that they are facing food shortage as the local authorities and population are harassing the refugees who leave the camp to work for food, according to camp committee members.

The report also called on the UNHCR “to press the government of Bangladesh to allow humanitarian aid to flow unhindered to the Rohingya and to launch a coordinated appeal to donor nations for humanitarian relief and protection for this neglected population.”

Richard Sollom, director of research and investigations at PHR, said, “Thousands of Rohingya who fled intolerable persecution in Burma now face equally bleak conditions in Bangladesh, because the government there has refused to recognize their status as refugees,”

The report asked, “What will it take to get them the aid they need to survive?”

Sollum said a  statement by a Bangladesh official, Dipu Moni, that Burma’s military regime has already agreed to take back all refugees confirmed as Burmese nationals, “shows a complete lack of understanding of her government’s legal obligations towards these people, as well as a complete lack of awareness of the reality [of the situation].”

Sollom said the Bangladesh government is worried that extending aid to the refugees would “open the floodgates.”
The Bangladeshi government has registered more than 28,000 Rohingya, who receive protection, humanitarian assistance, and food rations from U.N. agencies and international NGOs.

But since 1993, the government has denied 500,000 subsequent Rohingya arrivals official refugee status, making them ineligible for U.N. aid and protection.

In a Special Report, dated February 18 and called “Bangladesh: Violent Crackdown Fuels Humanitarian Crisis for Unrecognized Rohingya Refugees,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) criticized the Bangladesh government for its violent crackdown against the stateless Rohingyas in Bangladesh.

It was a chastising report in which the MSF called for an immediate end to the violence, along with urgent measures by the Government of Bangladesh and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to increase protection to Rohingya refugees seeking asylum in the country.

Of the estimated half a million Rohingya refugees, barely more than 28,000 are recognized as prima facie refugees by the Government of Bangladesh and live in official camps under the supervision of the UNHCR. The official camps at Kutupalong and Nayapara have everything: primary schools, a computer learning centre funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, health care centers, adult literacy centers and supplementary food centers for children and pregnant women.

As reported by the MSF and the Amnesty International, these Rohingya refugees are treated as unwanted people and have faced repeated beatings and harassment, including forcible repatriation to Burma. Many refugees, who had been repatriated to their country in the past, have entered Bangladesh again as they did not find any development and change in the attitude of the Burmese authorities.

Rohingya refugees living at a makeshift camp in Kutupalong, south of Cox’s Bazar faced harassment by local authorities, including the destruction of 259 homes in June and July last year, to clear space around the perimeter of the official UNHCR camp.

There was a crackdown by local authorities in October, 2009 in Bandarban District, east of Cox’s Bazar, forcing many Rohigyas to take shelter in the makeshift camp in Kutupalong. In January 2010, there was another crackdown against the refugees living in Cox’s Bazar District.

The Rohingyas also suffer at the hands of the local population, whose anti-Rohingya sentiment is fuelled by local leaders and the media.

The unregistered Rohingya at Kutupalong unofficial camp now outnumber the total registered refugee population supported by the UNHCR in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government has repeatedly stopped registration of those unfortunate refugees living outside the official camps. Without official recognition these people are forced to live in overcrowded squalor, unprotected and largely unassisted. Prevented from supporting themselves, they also do not qualify for the UNHCR-supported food relief. And sadly, the UNHCR, which is mandated to protect refugees worldwide, makes little or no visible protest at the injustice of this situation, according to an article “Letter from America: Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh,” by Dr. Habib Siddiqui with Dr. Nora Rowley, a medical doctor, who as part of MSF worked with the Rohingya people inside Arakan. She is currently affiliated with the US Campaign for Burma.

According to the MSF, the UNHCR is guilty of not making the return of the Rohingyas a priority issue. However, the Office of the UNHCR must take greater steps to protect the unregistered Rohingya seeking asylum in Bangladesh. The UNHCR must not allow the terms of its agreement with the government to undermine its role as international protector of the Rohingyas who have lost the protection of their own state - Burma, and have no state to turn to. Any failure to protect the Rohingyas inside and outside Burma is simply not acceptable.

Bangladesh faces a dilemma about the Rohingya refugees because it is a poor country. If it shows too much flexibility a huge influx may occur, while being harsh creates concern among the international community.

Nevertheless, the forced repatriation of the refugees against their wishes by the government of Bangladesh is simply inhuman and violates international humanitarian laws. It must be immediately stopped, failing which, its international image may suffer terribly, according to Dr. Habib Siddiqui and Dr. Nora Rowley.

It must also stop all harassment against the Rohingyas. Temporary residency permits should be provided to the refugees so that they can earn their livelihood like any other Bangladeshi. There is nothing worse than forced poverty which leads to crime and other serious problems, the article stated.

The article also mentioned that if the refugees choose to leave Bangladesh for a third country the government should not hinder that process either. It must also make all diplomatic efforts to find shelters for these stranded refugees in sparsely populated and prosperous countries of Europe and North America, and the Gulf states.

The Rohingya refugees remain trapped in a desperate situation, with no future in Bangladesh. These unfortunate people are caught between a crocodile and a snake: the xenophobic SPDC regime which does not want them back in Burma and the government of Bnagladesh which does not want them to stay because they are largely perceived as a burden on already scant resources.