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Rohingya Crisis in Bangladesh: History, Consequences and Solution
University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Graduate Student
The Rohingya refugee crisis is a continuous disrupting factor in bilateral relations between Myanmar and Bangladesh since the late 1970s. The crisis is seen as composed of various clusters of past and present human rights violations in Myanmar which has caused their forced migration to neighboring countries like Bangladesh contributing to security and socio-economic problems. In 1978 and 1991 Bangladesh was faced with influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. In 1978 about 200,000 refugees crossed into Bangladesh to flee being victim of persecution by the Myanmar army in the Arakan region. Their stay in Bangladesh at that time was short lived as the problem was resolved through diplomatic initiatives In the 1990s, more than 250,000 resided in refugee camps in Bangladesh. In the early 2000s, all but 20,000 of them were repatriated to Myanmar, some against their will (Thompson, 2005). But, recently, being attacked by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a Rohingya extremist group, Myanmar government and its Buddhist supporters started to persecute the race. As a result, estimated 603,000 refugees fled Rakhine, Myanmar for Bangladesh in 2017 and the United Nations called the exodus as “textbook example” of ethnic cleansing. Analysing secondary sources and using qualitative method, this paper discovers the historical development of Rohingya, factors and effects of crisis on Bangladesh. This paper explores the local and international attempts to face the challenge and suggests other solution to solve the crisis. In the light of social work, the study also focuses on the responsibilities and duties of social workers for increasing social functioning through pyscho-social development of Rohyngyas.
