The Bangladesh government has since alleged that most of the previously-repatriated Rohingya refugees have come back to Bangladesh

Dhaka, Bangladesh Govenet To Email: Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Dipu Moni has requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for support to resume the repatriation process of “all Burmese refugees in the soonest possible time", according to an official release of the ministry. On March 7, the Foreign Minister urged the UNHCR to work more intensely inside Burma and to create conditions to repatriate Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh. The minister was speaking to the new Bangladesh UNHCR representative Steven Craig Sanders, after he presented his credentials to the minister at her office. Dipu Moni's appeal comes in the wake of international media reports on the plight of Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh. Some have alleged human rights violations by Bangladesh authorities and urged the government to allow their integration with the local people. "She (Dipu Moni) emphasized on resuming the repatriation process at the soonest possible time," said a foreign ministry press statement on the meeting. The minister also urged the UNHCR to work for improving the conditions in Burma’s northern Rakhain state of the Muslim minority Rohingyas, who face persecution and hard conditions in their homeland, to discourage entry into Bangladesh. She said that the UNHCR could work to establish schools, hospitals and other institutions necessary for their socioeconomic development. "She reiterated Bangladesh's position on the issue of Myanmar refugees that full repatriation of the refugees, now living in two camps in Nayapara and Kutupalong, remained the only viable solution to this protracted problem," said the foreign ministry statement. "She ruled out any other option in this regard," it added. Dipu Moni said Burmese authorities had already agreed to take back all refugees confirmed to be their nationals. Bangladesh has been hosting thousands of Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazaar district bordering Burma for years. An estimated 300,000 Rogingya refugees took shelter in 1991-92 as the Burmese military launched a massive crackdown on the Muslim minority. Bangladesh and Burma, with the cooperation of the UNHCR, repatriated most of the refugees in successive years. But over 28,000 refugees have refused to return to their homeland either fearing persecution or starvation there. The residual refugees are now housed in Nayapara and Kutupalong camp. In December 2009, U Maung Myint, the Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister agreed to take back 9000 Rohingya refugees of the 28,000 refugees, who are living in the official camps Nayapara and Kutupalong during his trip. The Bangladesh government has since alleged that most of the previously-repatriated Rohingya refugees have come back to Bangladesh. Some western countries have been lobbying the Bangladesh government to recognize the illegal Burmese nationals as refugees or to integrate them with the locals. Dhaka has rejected the western proposal saying such decisions will open a floodgate of fresh refugees into Bangladesh. The Foreign Minister on Sunday said the recent international media reports referring to alleged rights abuses of undocumented Burmese nationals living in Bangladesh were "baseless and malicious

Rohingya of Myanmar, straining resources in Bangladesh, so the West

This is an update on the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar (Burma). We haven’t written about them for some time so when I saw this opinion piece in the Daily Star from Dhaka, the Capitol of Bangladesh, I decided to post it to bring readers up to date.
Muslim Bangladesh is pushing fellow Muslim Rohingya back across the border into Myanmar. Where is that much ballyhooed Muslim charity?
A European Parliament resolution passed only last month called on the Bangladesh government to “recognise that the unregistered Rohingyas are stateless asylum seekers who have fled persecution in Myanmar and are in need of international protection.” However, in spite of such calls, the government still continues with its forced repatriation drive. In recent months, border authorities have launched an unprecedented crackdown in Bangladesh, pushing over 2,000 Rohingyas back across the border into Myanmar where they are likely to face arrest for leaving their villages without a travel permit.
Citizens of Bangladesh fear job loss, radicalization (Islamic?) and crime with the influx.
Though half of the Rohingya who make their way to Bangladesh are taken in by sympathetic local families until they find their feet, it remains a fragile relationship. Many locals are competing for jobs with the Rohingya (who are often willing to work for less than Bangladeshis) and this often fuels local tensions. Others worry that armed extremist gangs are radicalising the youth of this marginalised, leaderless community, and suspicions of drug smuggling and an increase in petty crime in the camps have been recorded in the local press.
Bangladesh didn’t sign the 1951 UN Convention, the country is poor and so the West needs to help. What else is new?
Bangladesh, like India, Thailand and Pakistan, didn’t sign the 1951 Refugee Convention (the global treaty that defines who is eligible for refugee status and what rights they are guaranteed) and cannot be expected to take on such a massive challenge single-handed. As one of the poorest nations in the world, it doesn’t have the financial resources to cope with such a huge influx of people. However, the Thai boat crisis of 2009 should have made clear that regional solutions are needed to solve this issue. There has to be sustained regional pressure (including from India and China) on Myanmar to stop the ethnic cleansing and to recognise the Muslim Rohingya alongside the other 146 non-Muslim ethnic minorities.
The international community must also help relieve the pressure on Bangladesh by accepting some of the refugees that have already been registered. Since 2006, the UNHCR has resettled as few as 749 Rohingya from the registered camp. Five hundred were relocated in 2009 and another 190 are pending departure for the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and the US. It’s a rate of departure that barely covers the population growth of 2.9 percent within the registered camp; right now, the system is simply paying off the human interest.
Coming to a town near you? Probably Ft. Wayne is on the list so as to add to the incendiary mix of Burmese they already have!
Oh, here is an idea, maybe rich Saudi Arabia could take in their fellow Muslims. No, that won’t work, I just remembered that Saudi Arabia imprisons and deports Rohingya here.

Human Rights, based in Massachusetts organization's report released Rohingya

CRIPDO News: Physicians for Human Rights has found that in recent months Bangladeshi authorities have waged an unprecedented campaign of arbitrary arrest, illegal expulsion and forced internment against Burmese refugees. Critical levels of acute malnutrition and a surging camp population without access to food aid will cause more deaths from starvation and disease if the humanitarian crisis is not addressed.

What do health and human rights advocates do when they come across egregious abuses by a government, like PHR did three weeks ago in Bangladesh?

Phase 1: Conduct in-depth interviews with survivors, corroborate their testimonies, and speak off-the-record with every humanitarian worker and government official on the ground.

Phase 2: Design an emergency household survey to measure malnutrition and food insecurity in the population.

Phase 3: Take photos. Lots of them. One out of 50 may be good enough for print. (And don’t forget to get informed consent!)

Phase 4: Analyze the qualitative and quantitative data to ensure a robust report, write like mad, and pitch it to the media. With a little luck, they may bite.
Associated Press broke the story last night, appearing minutes later in the New York Times. Other coverage has followed in numerous outlets, including the Boston Globe

, AFP and BBC Read all about it: Stateless and Starving: Persecuted Rohingya Flee Burma and Starve in Bangladesh.

Post script: A BIG thanks to my colleague, Dr. Parveen Parmar, whose emergency-physician calm in the field made all the difference in completing this emergency assessment.

Posted in Conflict, General Human Rights, Health, News Coverage

Tagged afp, ap, associated press, Bangladeshi government, BBC, boston globe, Burma, Burmese refugees, human rights, Kutupalong, msf, Myanmar, new york times, Parveen Parmar, refoulement, Richard Sollom, Rohingya, unhcr