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Rohingya Crisis: Past-Present-Future
By Md. Tanvir Alam — Department of Public Administration, Stamford University, Bangladesh.
Among all the continents of the world, the Asian continents is the most populous continent, not to mention the largest too, with having 44,579,000 km2 of land area (Nat Geo,2006), now with such massive population which is very divers, this continent always faced many serious problems like religious conflict, riot, ethnic cleansing, and minority oppression etc ( Time Magazine 17 July, 1964.). Those dispute and dissention always revolved around Asia, especially the south Asian region. As Bangladesh is being in the Centre of this region, it faced many of the damaging impact of such negative event like Noakhali riot of 1946 to recent Rohingya crisis. Facing such events often left with unresolved situation that only leads to more complex scenario. Present Rohingya crisis is considered as the most sensitive issue in this region for the last fifteen years regarding refugee and ethnic cleansing matter. The role of Bangladesh towards the Rohingya was very clear since the beginning, which is obvious because of our straight cut foreign policy. The Government of Bangladesh handled the crisis with much competency and prevented the situation from deteriorating more. But as Bangladesh is one of the least developed country, and it has its own problems to solve, in these circumstances managing such massive population with having their basic necessities fulfilled is surely a challenging task, and this challenge is creating other problems as well.
The Rohingya crisis that took place recently, didn’t happen overnight thought the massive scale of deportation popularly known as ‘boat people’ from Myanmar to other country, took place during the year of 2015 (The telegraph, 20 May, 2015) But the inception of this crisis was far beyond anticipation. After the independence of Myanmar in the year of 1948, as the Military dictatorship under the Burma socialist program party began to rule the state, since then the discrimination against minority took place, and the discrimination began to took place as a formal legal foundation after the act of ‘1982 citizenship law’ (Burma Citizenship law 1982) which deprived the Rohingya as Myanmar citizen, later the discrimination began to transform to brutal measure which was manifested from time to time, and finally the military government of Myanmar performed a terrific military crackdown campaign against Rohingya in the Arakan areas (Aljazeera. 28 September 2017), which forced the Rohingya to flee from Myanmar. It was not that simple as it sounds that the military just threatened the people and the residents just fled from the locality, rather there were news and allegation of serious violation of human rights such as forced labor, rape, assaults towards the Rohingya etc. (Asia Watch, may 1992). The situation of minority had reached on such extent that it took attention of global community, including State, charity and International organizations (Amnesty International report, may 1992).
In the past the Rohingya people were not only denied to have citizenship, but also, they were denied from having common amenities like other people who lived in Myanmar, they were stripped of from jobs, educational opportunities etc. (Aljazeera, 18 April,2018).
It is obvious that the situation of then, about Rohingya draw focus of world, but at the same time it didn’t get any sustainable solution that would resolve the Rohingya crisis permanently. And as a result at present state the government of Bangladesh is facing the Rohingya crisis even at a larger scale, it is currently providing shelter for almost 9,47,000 Rohingya people , where other 5 countries including India, Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia constitutes shelter for only 9,00,000 Rohingya (BBC 24 april,2018)
Since the massive exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh on 2017, hundred thousand of Rohingya took shelter in refugee camps in Cox’s bazaar, at the first wave, many of them was children. The scenario then was severe at such extent that it draws attention of global community at mass level, and many nation state and organization both regional and international helped Rohingya via Bangladesh government. And at present situation the scenario has become so much complex as well as complicated from many dimensions that it become hard to perceive by one sighted perspective. Some graphical images are given below to illustrate a portion of present scenario; Population: Rohingya – 29%; Chattagram local residents – 71% .
There is no denying that Bangladesh government did taken a brave step by providing refugee status to Rohingya community, In the whole world Bangladesh alone provided shelter for half of the entire population of refugees. Considering the present situation, it is a matter of great urgency to resolve the Rohingya crisis as soon as possible, otherwise the Rohingya crisis can become a major problem for the socio-economic stat of Bangladesh. It is absolute that to resolve this crisis not only Bangladesh but also other stakeholders such as International organization, neighbor countries, and important institutions need to work together. Though it seems that Rohingya crisis is only problem for Bangladesh, but it will affect the whole world if not resolved in not so distance future.
