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International-domestic linkages in a developing-country context: the case of the Rohingyas in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT
Since 1978, the Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar and taking
refuge in Bangladesh. The state of Bangladesh is not a signatory
to the Geneva Convention and does not recognize refugee rights,
but the initial experiences with the Rohingya refugee population
led the government to create a temporary and ad hoc domestic
policy advisory and refugee management system, which
eventually became highly politicized. There was also some degree
of slow “externalization” of policy advice through the involvement
of international organizations from 2006–2007 onward, mainly
through the participation of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and International
Organization for Migration (IOM). Over 2017–2018, there was a
massive influx of refugees from Myanmar to Bangladesh. The
domestic advisory and refugee management system lacked the
capacity to manage the crisis and had to quickly and greatly
externalize policy advice and refugee management. The UNHCR
and IOM came in with a host of international organizational
networks and coordinated with each other and the state through
a multi-sectoral approach to manage the crisis. This
externalization led to the systematization and institutionalization
of the state’s domestic advisory system. However the effect of
externalization on politicization is equivocal; on the one hand it
decreased politicization of the domestic policy advisory system,
but on the other hand, it created new levels of politicization.