The demonstrations came after the Rakhine Advisory Commission, led by former UN chief Kofi Annan, urged Myanmar’s government to reconsider the ethnic group’s legal status. The government actually does not recognise the existence of Rohingya and rather considers them as Bengali.

Stripped of their basic rights, community members have been submitted to extreme violence and atrocities in Myanmar. More than 87,000 people have been displaced since October. For years now, many have fled to neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, where they live a life in limbo.
State counsellor Aung Saan Suu Kyi has thus far remained silent on the issue.
 

Bangladesh has some 32,000 registered refugees in two official camps located mainly in the Cox’s Bazar district bordering the eastern Rakhine State. An additional 200,000 to 500,000 unregistered refugees live in makeshift camps there, alongside locals.

Having faced a continuous flow of Rohingya refugees for over two decades, the Bangladesh government is now planning to relocate the refugees to a remote island in Noakhali district, Thengar Char, about 250 km northwest of current camps.

The government says the move would improve refugees’ access to humanitarian assistance. But Rohingya refugees reportedly oppose the plan, and human rights groups have urged the government to cancel the plan, which the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network has declared to be “dangerous, absurd and inhumane”. Rights groups argue that the island is uninhabitable: it rose from the sea only 11 years ago and is highly prone to flooding and cyclones.
 

Local integration

The Bangladeshi people of Cox’s Bazar and the Rohingya refugees share a common dialect and culture. As a result, law enforcement forces cannot always differentiate between refugees and locals. Despite restrictions on their ability to work, many refugees find employment in the informal sector, and some children go to local schools. The government has reluctantly allowed the refugees to stay so far, but it is clearly concerned that such opportunities will lead to integration.

Thengar Char is a remote island in the most literal sense. The nearest sub-district office, Hatiya, is two hours away by boat. The surrounding areas are poor and underdeveloped.

For the government, it is easier to manage a refugee population that is concentrated on Thengar Char. Locals there do not speak the same dialect as Rohingyas, decreasing the potential for integration. It will also be practically impossible for them to seek employment and education outside the camp.

Challenges for humanitarian agencies

But the relocation would also make it very difficult for the UNHCR/UN Refugee Agency International Organisation for Migration and local NGOs to provide humanitarian services. Currently, agencies are mainly based in Cox’s Bazar, a popular Bangladeshi tourist destination with the longest sea-beach in the world. It is well connected to Bangladesh and other parts of the world by land and air and offers staff the comforts of living in a city, including basic facilities and security.
 

Thengar Char, on the other hand, is an exceptional place in overpopulated Bangladesh: it has no human settlement. Villagers who live nearby complain of pirates roaming the nearby waters, stealing goods and holding people hostage. The area’s security risks and remoteness may discourage humanitarian agency staffers from relocating there.
 

Possibilities of a human catastrophe

The Bangladesh forest department has warned that the Thengar Char island is not yet suitable for human habitation, writing in a letter that:
 

The soil and environment of Thengar Char is not yet suitable for human settlement. The island is submerged in water during monsoon. Though it emerges during dry season, most of the island goes under water at high tide.
 

Cyclone are of significant concern. According to a catalogue of tropical storms in Bangladesh, 193 cyclones struck the country between 1484 and 2009. Arguably the deadliest tropical cyclone in history hit the region in 1970, battering the coast with a six-metre storm surge and killing some 300,000 people. If even a small-scale cyclone hits the proposed Rohingya camp, a human catastrophe is nearly certain.

The Noakhali district administration has written that the government would also have to “build flood protection embankment, cyclone centres and necessary infrastructure and ensure supply of drinking water” before receiving the Rohingyas in the Thengar Char.
 

Lost connections

For the Rohingyas, current border camps in Cox’s Bazar are close to home not just culturally but also geographically. For some, crossing into Bangladesh is as easy as wading through a little creek on foot or taking a short boat trip.

When Myanmar erupts in violence, many Rohingyas seek safety in Bangladesh, and, when it ends, some of them head back home. There is usually no asylum application, refugee-status determination procedure or UN-assisted voluntary repatriation; registration was last done in 1992. The country’s hundreds of thousands of unregistered Rohingya migrants live in limbo, as Bangladesh lacks specific refugee laws.
 

During relative peace, many Rohingyas also cross the border to seek medical treatment, education, marriage, daily shopping trips, or to visit relatives. Some will embark on a secondary migration, heading to Saudi Arabia or Malaysia. Many of these practices likely violate Bangladeshi law, but they are locally accepted and have been going on for generations.

Newly arrived refugees or migrants often get shelter and other assistance from relatives already living in Bangladesh’s camps. Many refugees in the camp also act as bridge between Rohingyas living in Myanmar and the diaspora of approximately one million others who live around the world.
 

Indirect force for repatriation?

Bangladesh has been negotiating with Myanmar to repatriate the Rohingyas. Many Rohingyas in Bangladesh have expressed their willingness to go back to their homeland if state authorities can ensure their safety.

However, the risk of persecution and violence in Myanmar remains high, and most refugees do not consider it safe there. International law requires that the Bangladeshi government only send back refugees who would voluntarily repatriate.

If the alternative to life in Myanmar is banishment to Thengar Char, many Rohingyas might “agree” to return rather than face a dangerous and uncertain future on a remote island of Bangladesh.

Ashraful Azad, Assistant professor, International Relations, University of Chittagong

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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A member of Border Guard Bangladesh stands guard on a watchtower near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border to prevent Rohingya refugees from illegal border crossing. Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters
 

Its release followed an investigation that took place on the Bangladeshi border with Myanmar in January, after the UN Human Rights Office team was denied access to the worst-affected areas of northern Rakhine State in Myanmar. Horrific testimonies of brutal killings of adults and children, including babies, as well as gang-rapes and disappearances have been detailed in the document.

Concern about Muslim minorities has been rising in this country since U Ko Ni, a prominent human rights lawyer close to Aung Saan Suu Kyi’s party, and a Muslim, was shot dead on January 29.
 

As of February 2014, there were 1.33 million Rohingyas in Myanmar, and more than one million living overseas. They are mainly in Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, India and Pakistan.
 

At least 87,000 Rohingyas have been displaced since the military launched a crackdown in western Rakhine state in early October 2016.
 

In Myanmar, most Rohingyas have been stripped of citizenship, and face serious violations of human rights including restriction of freedom of movement, marriage restriction, exclusion from education and health care, enforced birth control, arbitrary taxation and forced labour.
 

Rohingyas need to apply for travel pass to even visit a neighbouring village and are required to obtain permission for marriage by paying high fees and bribes which can take several years to get. Worse, they are beaten, tortured, killed and raped; their houses are burnt, and the survivors are forced to leave ancestral home for an uncertain future. It’s no surprise the Rohingyas are often called the most persecuted people on earth.
 

Several academic studies have established that the persecution on the Rohingyas amounts to genocide. But the Myanmar government keeps denying these claims.
 

Why are Rohingyas forced out of Myanmar?

The government actually denies the existence of any ethnic group named “Rohingya”. It often considers this group to be “Bengali”, formed of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite the fact that Rohingya have lived in the Rakhine State for generations.
 

Under the 1982 Citizenship Law of Myanmar, the government created three classes of citizens: full, associate and naturalised, and subsequently provided colour-coded “scrutiny cards”. Pink cards were provided to full citizens, blue for associate citizens and green for naturalised. Most of Rohingyas were not provided a card at all. They are rather considered “Myanmar residents”, which means neither citizen nor foreigner.
 

In 1993, Rohingyas were given “white cards” which allowed them to vote. However, these cards were revoked because of protests by Buddhist nationalist and monks. This meant Rohingyas could not vote in the landmark 2015 general election which paved the way for Aung San Suu Kyi and her party to come to power.
 

Many candidates, even sitting MPs, from Rohingya and other Muslim groups were banned from participating by all major political parties and the election commission.
 

Discrimination and violence against Rohingyas mainly lie in a false fear of Muslim power generated by Buddhist nationalists led by radical monks under the 969 movement and Ma Ba Tha (the Organisation for the Protection of Race and Religion).
 

Although Buddhist monks are usually portrayed as peace-preachers globally, many in Myanmar are involved in political activism. Ashin Wirathu, the charismatic leader of some of these radical movements, often called “Burmese bin Laden”, openly spreads anti-Muslim rumours and hatred.
 

No one dares challenge Wirathu in fear of retaliation, and major political parties have designed policies considering the likely reaction from Ma Ba Tha. Therefore, not only stateless Rohingyas but also non-Rohingya Muslim groups with Burmese citizenship such as the Kaman people, as well as Muslims in Meiktila and Mandalay, have all faced religious violence. Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights for Myanmar was herself labelled as a “whore” by Wirathu when she advocated for human rights of Rohingya in 2015.
 

The radical monks have drafted and successfully pressured the Myanmar government to pass so-called Race and Religion Protection laws such as Religious Conversion Law, Interfaith Marriage Law and Population Control Law that largely target Muslims.
 

Although the Ma Ba Tha has become weaker in recent months following a dispute with the Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein, state councillor Aung San Suu Kyi and her party do not dare to challenge the already strong public sentiment against Muslims.
 

The celebrated transition to democracy in Myanmar has only increased populist pressure and majoritarian autocracy, ironically shutting up the voices of previously active human rights advocates.
 

Bangladesh’s defensive position

Dealing with the waves of Rohingya refugees has always been a dilemma for the bordering host community and the government of Bangladesh. Recently the government has even proposed to relocated the Rohingyas on a flood prone island off the Bangladesh coast. While there is a desire to help the refugees on humanitarian and religious grounds for Rohingyas, which I witnessed during my fieldwork, population pressure and security concerns have put the government in a defensive position.
 

In 1978, during a major influx of Rohingyas, Bangladesh hosted approximately 222,000 refugees who were mostly repatriated soon after. In 1991-92, another major flow of around 250,000 refugees entered Bangladesh. They have been repatriated, except for about 32,000 who are still staying in two registered camps in Cox’s Bazar district in Chittagong.
 

However, many Rohingyas, including some repatriated ones, continued to cross the porous borders into Bangladesh. These post-1992 arrivals have not been registered officially, and they are living in unregistered camps and along with local communities near the border areas. The similarity in religion and language (Rohingya and Chittagonian dialect are largely similar) has allowed some to become informally integrated into the South-Eastern areas of Bangladesh.
 

During the fresh arrivals in 2012 after a communal riot in the Rakhine State, the government of Bangladesh took a tougher stance; border guards refused entry to the refugees, pushing them back to Myanmar. This violates the principle of non-refoulment which prohibits the return of refugees to persecution.
 

Since last October, the government has refused to offer any asylum to the refugees. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told the Bangladeshi parliament, “We cannot just open our doors to people coming in waves”.
 

Political pressure

The government’s position can be explained by increasing economic growth of Bangladesh and subsequently less dependence on international aid. This has allowed the government to brush aside international diplomatic pressure. But Bangladesh is far from alone in trying to avoid responsibility amid a global refugee crisis.
 

Still, many refugees do manage to enter Bangladeshi territory. According to a UN estimate, 66,000 new refugees have taken shelter in Bangladesh in recent months. Before this, as per 2015, the number of unregistered Rohingyas in Bangladesh was estimated to be between 200,000 and 500,000.
 

Recent government actions seem to follow the directions of a strategy paper designed in 2014. Based on its recommendations, the government has conducted the first-ever census to count “undocumented Myanmar nationals” in Bangladesh. The census result has not been made public so far.
 

Rohingya policy is also dictated by diplomatic relations with Myanmar. The current government of Bangladesh has shown its serious willingness to improve relations with its neighbour. Dhaka wants to eventually repatriate Rohingyas to Myanmar, but it is happy to increase engagement on other issues such as business in the meantime.
 

Bangladesh is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol and does not have any national legislation to deal with the refugees.
 

In the absence of any legal standard, a former UN representative in Bangladesh notes, the refugees are administered through an “ad hoc, arbitrary and discretionary system”. Although some Rohingyas have found a safer place to stay in Bangladesh, they are still suffering from fear and insecurity.
 

According to the Foreigners Act 1946 of Bangladesh, the large number of unregistered Rohingyas are considered “illegal foreigners”. Police may arrest them anytime if they wish. Though the police rarely do that, the possibility of arrest and indefinite detention keeps them in constant fear.
 

They are also not allowed to seek employment, register marriage, move freely and get higher education. Many of them live in overcrowded, unhygienic makeshift camps. In 2010, Physicians for Human Rights reported that the camps are like an “open air prison”.
 

The solution starts with Myanmar

The Rohingya crisis is, first of all, a political issue in Myanmar. The ultimate solution lies in the granting citizenship and ensuring equal rights in their ancestral home.
 

Unfortunately, the United Nations and influential states have done nothing more than criticise. For powerful neighbours such as India or China, but also for many global players, Myanmar is an untapped resource and investment hub waiting to be explored. It has become evident that the humanitarian intervention is reserved for strategic and business usefulness, not to protect the most vulnerable.
 

Until a permanent solution is found in Myanmar, it is the responsibility of refugee hosting countries, including Bangladesh, to ensure that Rohingya people can live with basic human rights and dignity. Rather than making administrative interventions, granting proper legal standards would serve both refugees and the national interest of Bangladesh.
 

This is the first of a two-part series on the plight of Rohingyas in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
 

Ashraful Azad, Assistant professor, International Relations, University of Chittagong
 

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
 

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