Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed, Writer, researcher & columnist
The Rohingya crisis is a refugee boat dilemma, which caught the attention of international podium in the second half of May 2015 when the government of Myanmar state sponsored religious and ethnic discrimination against the Muslims of Burma. The Rohingya crisis highlights both humanitarian and security implications as huge exodus of the world’s largest stateless population is expected to infiltrate in different regions of Southeast Asia.
Till today much has been written and said about the Rohingya crisis. Much more pressure from international communities and organizations will indeed play a significant role in regards to Rohingya repatriation or a durable solution of crisis. Myanmar is now accusing Bangladesh for the delay in repatriation and at the same time plotting more atrocities against Rohingyas in Rakhine state. Last week, the Rakhine state government issued notice further blocking the United Nations and other aid agencies from travelling to five townships affected by the conflict. Sadly, many believed that the agreement for repatriation signed back in November 2017 will take care of this human tragedy. A Study is necessary to understand the impacts of Rohingyas on Bangladesh economy, society and security systems. The Rohingya crisis as it is unfolding gradually has many faces that should be of concern to the Bangladeshi people and the government. In July 2017, prior to influx of the Rohingya refugees, the combined estimated population of Teknaf and Ukhiya was slightly over four lakh. The sudden gush of an additional eight-lakh Myanmar refugee by December 2017 was overwhelming. The numbers keep rising even today. The presence of this massive number of refugees has impacted on everyday carrying capacity of the region; today, this is felt on all aspects of life and cultures—both for the hosts and refugees themselves. An immediate impact was on land and local resources—for instance, the massive loss of forests and changes in land use from forest/agriculture to housing and campsites for resettlement of the refugees. In addition, many reported on the growing social, economic, environmental and health impacts of Rohingya refugee resettlement. The unplanned and makeshift settlements at the early stage of the surge on hill slopes and forestlands led to vulnerabilities for landslides and other forms of risks and disasters for all.
In August 2017, a part of Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar region abutting the international boundary with Myanmar was inundated by a sea of humanity. And it was a picture of humanity in utmost distress. The world started in despair and dismay as Myanmar engaged in a fresh wave of brutally executed blueprint of ethnic cleansing giving rise to a scale of forced human dislocation not seen in this greater region for decades. Ever since Myanmar’s Citizenship Law of 1982 effectively rendered the Rohingyas stateless, convulsive episodes at their physical removal from Myanmar has led to episodic programs of ethnic cleansing most notably in 1992 and 2012. Mass influxes into Bangladesh of the forcefully displaced Rohingya occurred on each occasion. With hindsight, these were but a harbinger of a more sinister initiative of emptying Myanmar’s Rakhine State of the Rohingyas, the sheer scale and magnitude of which this time around attests to a final genocidal chapter at ethnic cleansing.
It is with that complex scenario in mind that I now introduce the fundamental tools already available in international law and practice that operate to avoid a disproportionate burden being borne by Bangladesh at a crippling cost to itself. I argue that time is ripe to look beyond the physical protection being solely provided by Bangladesh to devise a comprehensive mechanism of durable solutions. The complex problem at hand necessitates the co-operation and understanding of all concerned and that a comprehensive set of mutually re-enforcing humanitarian undertakings, which must be carried out in its totally rather than selectively, is the only realistic approach towards achieving a durable solution to the problem. Relying on the New York Declaration and Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) adopted by the UN General Assembly on 19 September 2016 that builds on the notion of burden-sharing reflected in relieving countries of asylum of disproportionate burdens of granting sanctuary resettlement in third countries and facilitating conditions in countries of origin conducive to repatriation in safely and dignity.Perhaps that most compelling argument for the exercise of jurisdiction by the ICC is that the Rohingyas were specifically and intentionally deported by the Myanmar authorities into the territory of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is, therefore, the territory as has been specifically targeted by the Myanmar authorities for commission of the cross-border crime of deportation. As such, Bangladesh as the receiving State and, by extension, the ICC has sufficient interest in the matter enabling the ICC to assert its criminal Jurisdiction over the crimes in question. Once it is established that ICC has jurisdiction over the crimes of deportation, Bangladesh may, as a state Party to the Rome Statute, request the Office of the Prosecutor under Article 14 of the Statute to carry out an investigation into such crimes. There have been numerous examples of referral by State Parties in the past. In December 2003, Uganda referred to the Prosecutor the situation with regard to the Lord’s Resistance Army. In 2004, the Congo and the Central African Republic referred to the Prosecutor the offences committed within their territories, In all three cases, investigations were commenced and arrest warrants duly issued against the alleged perpetrators.
It is encouraging that the issue of repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar within a short time was given importance in the recent Bangladesh-China meeting. Foreign secretary of Bangladesh, quoting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Chinese president Xi Jinping, said that the two leaders agreed that the Rohingya crisis needs immediate solution and Rohingya refugees should go back to their country.