Keep Bangladesh Border Open; No Forced Returns to Burma
(New York) – The protection and assistance needs of
Rohingya who fled ethnic cleansing in Burma should be high on the agenda of
world leaders at upcoming summits in Vietnam and the Philippines, Human Rights
Watch said today as it released its “Ten
Principles for Protecting Refugees and Internally Displaced People Arising from
Burma’s Rohingya Crisis.” https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/11/07/ten-principles-protecting-refugees-and-internally-displaced-people-arising-burmas
Since late August 2017, more
than 600,000 Rohingya refugees have
fled to Bangladesh while hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people
remain in Burma’s Rakhine State. Rohingya refugees have the right to return to
their homes in Burma, but all returns must be voluntary and safe with full
respect for returnees’ human rights. World leaders need to press Burma to end
its abusive operations, prevent future atrocities, and create the conditions
necessary for Rohingya to choose to return home in safety and dignity, Human
Rights Watch said. https://www.iom.int/news/two-months-outbreak-violence-number-rohingya-refugees-bangladesh-reaches-817000
“The Rohingya crisis is of gargantuan proportions and
needs to be treated with utmost urgency,” said Bill Frelick, refugee rights
director at Human Rights Watch. “Leaders at the upcoming APEC and ASEAN summits
should be putting the rights of the Rohingya at the top of their agenda.”
The “Ten Principles” are intended to guide governments
and humanitarian agencies as they address the Rohingya refugee crisis. They
include an urgent call on donor governments to provide generous support to meet
the humanitarian needs of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and internally
displaced people of all ethnicities remaining in Burma.
The Bangladeshi government should keep its border open to
asylum seekers and not coerce returns, respecting the principle of
nonrefoulment, which prohibits the return of refugees to places where they
would be persecuted or face a real risk of torture, or cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment.
Many refugees have told Human Rights Watch that they want
to return home, but none interviewed believe it’s safe now or will be for the
foreseeable future.
Refugee camps in Bangladesh are not a sustainable
solution, Human Rights Watch said. The Bangladeshi government and its
humanitarian partners should regard refugee camps as a temporary fix during
this crisis and should transition as soon as practically possible to
accommodations that are conducive to free movement and that promote dignified
self-sufficiency.
Bangladesh is constructing a large refugee camp in the
Cox’s Bazar district of the country, which officials have said they plan to
surround with barbed wire. Bangladeshi authorities have previously suggested
that Rohingya refugees could be relocated from the Cox’s Bazar area to Thengar
Char island, an uninhabited, undeveloped coastal island that is highly
susceptible to flooding. Either situation would deprive refugees of their
rights to freedom of movement, livelihood, food, and education, in violation of
Bangladesh’s obligations under international human rights law.
“The Bangladeshi government has responded generously to
the current crisis, keeping its borders open to Rohingya fleeing Burma,”
Frelick said. “But close monitoring is needed to ensure that Bangladesh keeps
its borders open to asylum seekers while respecting the rights of refugees to
education, health, and work.”
The Burmese government has indicated that Rohingya who
wish to return to the country should live in camps for internally displaced
people. Camps for displaced people and “safe zones” in Burma are not an
acceptable solution for returnees, Human Rights Watch said. Refugees and
internally displaced people who were arbitrarily or unlawfully deprived of
their former homes, lands, properties, or places of habitual residence have the
right to return to their place of residence or choice, and the to the return of
their property. Burma should respect the right of those who are unable or
unwilling to return to their homes to choose compensation for the loss of their
homes and properties.
As with the internment of Rohingya internally displaced
people after the 2012 anti-Rohingya violence in Rakhine State, any such camps
would invariably limit basic rights, segregate returning Rohingya refugees and
internally displaced people from other Burmese, and exacerbate ethnic and
religious discrimination. Such camps could become permanent, and act as a
barrier for returning refugees and internally displaced people to reconstruct
their homes, work their land, regain livelihoods, and reintegrate into Burmese
society.
The Rohingya refugee population in Bangladesh consists
not only of those who have fled the recent ethnic cleansing campaign, which Human Rights Watch has determined amounts to crimes
against humanity, but also hundreds of thousands who have fled
previous Burmese government repression and violence. In all, as many as one
million Rohingya refugees may be in Bangladesh. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/25/burma-military-commits-crimes-against-humanity
Exacerbating the Rohingya’s dire situation in Burma is
the Burmese government’s effective denial of citizenship for Rohingya under the
discriminatory 1982 Citizenship Law. This has facilitated enduring rights
violations, including restrictions on movement; limitations on access to health
care, livelihood, shelter, and education; and arbitrary arrests and detention.
“At every high-level meeting where this crisis is being
discussed, leaders should call Rohingya refugees what they are: ‘Rohingya
refugees,’” Frelick said. “Governments should not use euphemisms or otherwise
mince words to suggest that these are not refugees deserving of all their
rights as refugees or to deny their ethnic identity and nationality ties to
Burma.”
