By Dhaka Tribune
Bangladesh and Myanmar high officials will meet today to
discuss the repatriation of nearly a million Rohingya refugees from the
makeshift camps of Cox’s Bazar to their homeland in the Rakhine state of
Myanmar.
The talks will take place against a backdrop of mistrust
and inaction, with both sides accusing each other of being unprepared for a
repatriation process which was due to begin in January, but which has so far
been limited to dialogue.
Today’s meeting of Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md
Shahidul Haque and Myanmar’s permanent secretary of its ministry of foreign
affairs, U Myint Thu, is being held under the Joint Working Group (JWG) formed
to hammer out the details of a bilateral arrangement signed by the two
countries last November.
At the first meeting of the JWG held in Naypyidaw on
January 15, both parties agreed on the physical arrangements for returning the
recently-displaced Rohingyas within the next two years.
As part of this agreement, Myanmar supplied Bangladesh
with the names of 508 persons of Hindu faith and 750 persons of Muslim faith
who have been verified as Myanmar residents, and should be included in the
first batch of repatriation.
Following on from this, the Myanmar government claimed on
April 14 that it had received the first Rohingya family (consisting of five
members) at the Taungpyoletwei town repatriation camp in Rakhine.
This, however, was revealed to have been a show of smoke
and mirrors, after rights groups and the Bangladesh government found the family
had been living in the no man’s land between the two countries, and had never
even entered Bangladesh.
Such duplicity has led many observers to dismiss the
stalled repatriation process as little more than a “paper tiger” - threatening
of change, but ultimately ineffectual.
Myanmar ‘hoodwinked the world’
Dr CR Abrar, professor of international relations at
Dhaka University, is among those who see no reason to feel optimistic under the
present circumstances.
“I think one of the first things Bangladesh should ask,
is what made Myanmar think the first batch of repatriation took place?” he
said. “The family did not even cross the border; they were in the no man’s
land.
Dr Abrar – who is also the executive director of the
Refugee and Migratory Research Movements Unit – believes a change of approach
from Bangladesh is now needed.
“When Myanmar has the audacity to hoodwink the world and
say repatriation took place and Bangladesh is responsible for distorting the
process, we cannot continue being quiet,” he said.
“It is time we put our foot down, negotiate as a strong
party, and show the world we engaged Myanmar in good faith to bring about to
end the crisis.
“We should seek clear answers and set conditions to
Myanmar over the role of the international community, the UNHCR, and other
authorities for a swift repatriation.”
Other experts are also urging Bangladesh to be proactive
in dealing with Myanmar, while mounting pressure via the international
community.
Low output for Bangladesh’s efforts
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), a total of 713,909 Rohingyas have fled persecution in
Myanmar’s Rakhine State since August 25 last year. The agency says this brings
the total number of Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh as of the end of
April to 878,596.
The instrument signed by Bangladesh and Myanmar in
November 2017 stipulates that their eventual repatriation will require proof of
residency in Myanmar, such as citizenship identity cards, national registration
cards, temporary registration cards, business ownership documents, or
certificates of school attendance.
Any refugee documentation issued by the UNHCR will also
be similarly verified - although Myanmar has the final say in any dispute.
For its part in the process, Bangladesh handed over a
list of 8,032 refugees it deemed eligible for early repatriation to Myanmar in
February. Three months and seven stages of scrutiny later, Myanmar had managed
to verify only around 1,000 of these Rohingyas.
“Despite everything Bangladesh is doing, the output has
been nil,” the former Bangladesh ambassador to the United States, Humayun
Kabir, said.
“Myanmar is saying that it does not have sufficient resources
to verify or expedite the repatriation (but) that are a time-delaying method.
Bangladesh should offer to jointly verify to complete the process quickly.”
Myanmar ‘playing a game’ over repatriation
Dr Wakar Uddin, director general at Arakan Rohingya
Union, a federation of 61 Rohingya organizations worldwide, also said the
Myanmar government and military are just trying to buy time by delaying the
process.
He said: “How does the Myanmar government want to verify
people who fled their homes to save their lives, people who were shot and
raped, and people whose homes were burnt? This is all just a game for them.”
Dr Uddin said it will be essential to guarantee the
safety, security, and citizenship of the Rohingya people before the physical
repatriation process begins in earnest.
“If the Rohingyas do not feel secure, they will flee to
Bangladesh again,” he said. “(Therefore) the involvement of the international
community is a must not only in the repatriation, but also during resettlement
and rehabilitation processes.”
Humayun Kabir also said that after verification, much
action will be required to build confidence among the Rohingya refugees.
“This includes, but is not limited to, creating an
enabling environment for them so they feel their return would be safe, with their
rights secured,” he said.