A global responsibility
This week marked the third year anniversary of the Rohingya mass exodus to Bangladesh. For the nearly one million refugees inhabiting sprawling Bangladeshi refugee camps, life is a precarious struggle, a struggle to find acknowledgement and justice for the horrors the community has faced. The current pandemic has pushed the plight of the Rohingyas out of the public view but their problems have not ended. As the community silently celebrated yet another year of their escape from a brutal regime, there was a clear realisation that the current situation cannot carry on indefinitely. For many, it is no longer a matter of how the older generation was uprooted from its land and made to eke out a meagre existence in another country. Now, there is a new generation that has seen nothing but the refugee camps, a younger generation without access to the necessary opportunities to improve their lot in life and see a life beyond the oppressive confines of their current existence. The population explosion is yet another challenge for the already beleaguered community and the equally cornered Bangladeshi Government which is being unilaterally blamed worldwide for not doing enough for the Rohingya migrants. A report released by the 'Save The Children' organisation recently shows that more than 9 per cent of the 8.6 lakh-odd inmates of the Cox Bazar camps are children below three years of age. It has been noted that the population explosion amongst the Rohingyas is an unusual pattern for refugee populations which normally register a below-average birth rate.
Many have blamed religious extremism for this fact among a whole host of other issues such as rampant crime and an alarming rise in radicalisation amongst the refugees. Western aid workers have repeatedly reported hostile reactions by many of the refugees for suggestions regarding birth control. They also noted that child marriage and polygamy are rampant in the community.
Presently, the Government of Bangladesh is in the midst of a stand-off of sorts against the international community and the NGOs who want the Government to decongest and expand the camps. The Bangladeshi Government is absolutely reluctant to expand the camps and has even suggested total relocation of camps to an offshore island. This would allow the Government to keep an eye on radical organisations that are attempting to convert the Rohingyas. Regardless of intentions, the suggestion has not gone down well with the global community. Laden with a responsibility no one seems willing to share, the Bangladesh Government has also tried to repatriate the refugees to Myanmar. This time, the refugees themselves refused, willing to die but not return to previous living conditions in Myanmar unless they're given certain guarantees. Given that the remaining 600,000 or so Rohingyas in Myanmar live in what can only be called open-air prisons with little concept of freedom or representation, these guarantees are unlikely to be forthcoming.
The hope of the Rohingyas has and will continue to exist in international pressure finally forcing the civilian government of Myanmar to come clean regarding its complicity and make amends. For a while, it seemed that the hope had some basis. The international community did hold the defiant leadership of Myanmar responsible and UN investigators called for the military leaders of the nation to be tried as war criminals for crimes amounting to genocide. Alas, there was little to no followup to such condemnation, no physical reprisal or reproach. Indeed, as time passed, it seemed as if the international community had given up trying to hold Myanmar responsible and had now shifted focus to somehow making sure Bangladesh was sheltering them properly. With no meaningful aid, the international community is presently seeking to hold Bangladesh, a developing country with its own issues, responsible for a rapidly growing community of refugees, blaming them for the growing intolerance within the nation against this community.
Needless to say, blaming Bangladesh for not doing more is not only unhelpful but also hypocritical. The Rohingya crisis is not a Bangladeshi crisis, it is a crisis that must be resolved through the full cooperation and aid of the international community. Simply shifting the responsibility unto Bangladesh without a concrete plan or foreseeable shift in the situation in the near future is unfair to say the least. Aid isn't enough. Well-wishers and positivity aren't enough. Temporary measures are irrelevant. What is now needed is a long term plan to find a permanent safe haven for the refugees and to put a stop to this travesty of justice and humanity.
