Kaladan News

Dated: 27^th November 2004

UNHCR to Review Rohingya Refugee Policy

Chittagong, November 27: The UNHCR is likely to review next month its stance on two Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar to persuade the government to end the stalemate in negotiations over the fate of the remaining 20, 000 refugees, said Ashfaq Wares Khan from Dhaka on 26^th November 2004.

The UNHCR wants to provide these refugees with work permit and freedom of movement beyond their two camps at Ukhia in Cox’s Bazar. But the government wants to confine the refugees to the camps and speed up their repatriation as a section of the Rohingyas is drifting into crime and other anti-social activities, he further added.

The UN body last year threatened to wind up its operations in Bangladesh over the disagreement.

Repatriation of the remaining Rohingya refugees has remained stalled for the last six months. Officials say the refugees are unwilling to head back home now and there is little possibility of further repatriation.

Now, the UNHCR plans to take a new initiative either during or after a high-level visit by an UNHCR official from its headquarters next month to review the situation, sources said.

UNHCR’s Deputy Representative in Dhaka Mamo Mulusew said there was no such plan to push the government to accept their proposals, but they will continue to pursue the arguments.

The initiative comes after the rejection by the government styled “Programmed of Self Reliance of Refugees and Support to the Refugee and Host Community,” that came in different words and forms in the last two years. The government finally rejected it in September.

Recent violence in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar and the Malaysian government giving 10,000 Rohingya refugee status and work permit have added new twists to the issue of their repatriation, sources said.

Ishaq Ali, head of the Burma Refugee Cell at the Ministry of Disaster Management, explains why the government rejected the UN proposal: “They (refugees) can become self-reliant after they are repatriated or, they can be self-reliant inside the camp. We do not support any effort to make them self-reliant on this side of the border and to help them merge with the local community.”

The government believes that any provisions of work permit to refugees here would not only discourage them from returning to Burma, but also invite a further influx of Rohingyas from their homeland, sources said.

It also argues free movement of Rohingyas outside their camps would be a threat to law and order and make it more difficult to keep track of their movements.

Mulusew explained that maintaining the status quo of containing the refugees within the camp where they are idle and on WFP rations is counter-productive, as it discourages their repatriation and living comfortably sucking on the UN funds.

In the first week of this month, Malaysia said it would grant the 10,000 Rohingyas in Malaysia permission to stay temporarily, move freely around the country and have work permits, Mulusew said they have been urging the Bangladesh government for years to take similar steps.

UNHCR currently coordinates operations in the two Rohingya camps, Kutupalong and Nayapara, where, according to official estimates, 19,994 Rohingyas of Burma origin are currently taking refuge on Bangladesh soil.

Local people, however, say there are about two lakh (0.2 million) “unofficially estimated” refugees in the Cox’s Bazar district.

The UNHCR works on three tracks on refugees: resettlement, repatriation or local integration. It also protects the rights of refugees not to be repatriated involuntarily, said Ashfaq Wares Khan from Dhaka. ##

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