Rohingya Refugees
The Path Toward Repatriation
This past August marked the seventh anniversary of the targeted and escalating violence against the Rohingya by the Myanmar military. Such abuses against the Rohingya have a long history, but 2017 saw a dramatic change. Following attacks on police and army posts by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, Myanmar’s military began launching indiscriminate attacks on Rohingya communities in the Rakhine State. Seven years have passed, and there is no end in sight to the violence.
The anniversary of the large-scale fleeing of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh is marked as “Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day,” and this August 25th, tens of thousands of refugees in Bangladesh gathered and demanded the ability to safely return to Myanmar. However, the continued violence has made it impossible for safe return.
A little background on the Rohingya: they are the largest stateless group in the world. Despite representing one of the largest ethnic groups in the Rakhine State, the Rohingya are not considered a formal ethnic group and are denied citizenship in their own country.
The initial wave of violence caused over 742,000 Rohingya to flee. As of the end of 2023, more than 2.6 million Rohingya are internally displaced and over 1.3 million are refugees. The UN fact-finding mission found that the Myanmar government was systematically targeting civilians and showed “genocidal intent” against the Rohingya in 2018. Other countries have tried to hold the Myanmar government accountable in international legal systems such as the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, but these cases have had little impact on the ground.
These refugees are predominantly fleeing to Bangladesh given the proximity of the Rakhine State to Bangladesh’s border. But crossing the border has not ensured their safety. Refugees are still at risk in Bangladesh as killings, abductions, and torture, among other forms of violence, are being committed against Rohingya in refugee camps. At least twice since 2017 the Bangladesh government under former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina tried sending Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar and urged the international community to intervene to make Myanmar safe for their return. So far, repatriation has been almost entirely unsuccessful.
Bangladesh’s political scene, however, is changing. In August, large-scale protests against the government forced Hasina to resign and flee the country, resulting in the appointment of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as interim leader. But what will this mean for the Rohingya?
So far, it has been a mixed result. Around 18,000 Rohingya refugees have arrived in Bangladesh in the past couple of months and around 10,000 are currently waiting at the border, with thousands being sent back since early August.
The interim government has made clear its stance on continued resettlement. In early September, Yunus called for a fast-tracked third-country resettlement of Rohingya Muslims. Bangladesh’s de facto foreign minister, Mohammad Touhid Hossain, stated that the country can no longer accept more Rohingya refugees and has called on other countries to take in refugees and pressure the Myanmar military to stop attacks against the Rohingya. Recently, Yunus met with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to garner support from other nations in the region on working toward repatriation. Next year, Malaysia becomes chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and could raise Rohingya repatriation as an issue of focus.
While there have been international efforts toward repatriation and holding the government of Myanmar accountable for widespread atrocities, both have been largely unsuccessful. As Yunus looks to other countries for action, the international community must put significant pressure on the government of Myanmar to end the violence and help promote Rohingya resettlement in the meantime—only then will repatriation be a viable option.