- Stars (0)
Rohingya refugees becoming Palestinians of Asia
Three years after Myanmar drove hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into Bangladesh they are no closer to repatriation
By BERTIL LINTNER > AUGUST 26, 2020
BANGKOK – Three years after images of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees streaming across Myanmar’s western border into Bangladesh shook the world, expectations that they will ever be repatriated are fading fast.
With elections in Myanmar scheduled for November, no party that wants to win – and no elected government that wants to remain in power in Naypyidaw after the polls – is likely to agree to take back more than a million mostly Muslim Rohingya refugees who want to be fully recognized as Myanmar citizens.
International pressure is also unlikely to have any impact as Western powers, which spearheaded the condemnation of the August 2017 carnage, have likely come to the conclusion that the only effect of their criticism has been to push Myanmar into the arms of China’s increasingly expansionist leaders.
China and its ally Russia have pledged to defend Myanmar in international fora and as permanent members of the UN Security Council, where they have the power to veto any attempts to pressure or sanction Naypyidaw. Now, in the wake of what appears to be a wave of Covid-19 infections in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, where the refugees came from, the border between the two countries will remain closed for the foreseeable future.
On August 24, Myanmar’s Health and Sports Ministry reported 30 new Covid-19 cases, the highest single-day surge since signs of the pandemic were first detected in the country at the end of March. Nearly all of them were detected in Rakhine state.
The day before, a total of 24 cases were reported, 22 in Rakhine state, one in the commercial capital Yangon with the travel history to that part of the country, and only one in another part of Myanmar. A curfew has been imposed on the state capital Sittwe; partial lockdowns are also in place there and elsewhere in the state.
But if the Rohingya are not allowed to return to Myanmar their situation will increasingly mirror that of the Palestinians in Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries, where a seemingly permanent refugee population has carved out a state within the state with their own political organizations, administration and agenda.
There are also anecdotal indications that desperate Rohingya are being radicalized by extremists within their own ranks as well as outside agitators. The realization that an Asian version of Palestine is emerging on the shores of southeastern Bangladesh has by now dawned in Dhaka. In June last year, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed said “our security and stability will be hampered” if the Rohingya refugees remain in the camps. The concern is that radicalized refugees could form alliances with indigenous Islamic radical groups and become a security risk that spreads throughout the country.
According to official Bangladeshi figures, quoted in the Daily Star, 860,365 Rohingya live in 34 camps near the Myanmar border with an additional 230,000 living in towns and villages in the southeast of the country. The report estimated “80% of these Rohingya are women and children,” which begs the question of where all the men are. In addition, a UN team of investigators asserted in September that 600,000 Rohingya are still inside Myanmar, where they “remain in deteriorating and deplorable conditions.”
A study by the Bangladeshi think-tank Center for Policy Dialogue states that the estimated cost of hosting the Rohingya is US$1.2 billion a year and “gradually the cost will increase given the decline in foreign funding, population growth and inflation.”
