KALADAN PRESS NET WORK

Bangladesh Plans to Repatriate all Rohingyas Refugees by June 2003

Dated. June 5, 2002

By Our Correspondent

Dhaka, June 4: 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

Monday, reports the Independent of Bangladesh.

State Minister for Communication Salahuddin Ahmed,

concerned secretaries and representatives 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.

Editor

Kaladan Press