Rohingya Crisis: Fatigue setting in on Regional Responses

Three recent episodes last week told the world  heartrending tales of dichotomies and disjunctions and cast serious doubts on the efficacy of various regional responses for the relief and rehabilitation of Rohingya refugees. The widespread presence of one of the most persecuted minorities on earth – the Rohingyas – is causing rising disaffection across several Asian nations while a fatigue seems to be setting in amongst most of these stakeholder nations. The U.S. wants to precipitously exit its regional leadership role, while  Russia and China have stood firmly with the Myanmar Army, providing it protection from any sanctions or censor. In the absence of any international consensus and any concerted efforts, falsehood, frauds, and diabolic human trafficking are shaping diverging trajectories which hold out little promise.

First, earlier this month, within a span of  just four days Border Guards of Bangladesh foiled two attempts by smugglers who were trafficking groups of Rohingyas- 22 and 30 each, which included  women and children from the Kutupalong and Balukhali refugee camps – from being trafficked to Malaysia.  After spending their life’s savings (media reports say the cost is approximately  $1,200 for each person – an astronomical sum by local standards) for a small berth on a rickety boat, risking their lives on the perilous high seas together with the prospect of not being allowed to anchor or come overland, they would have thought themselves lucky if they could end up  working in prostitution and/or slavery forever. This was the fourth such capture since last November. It can be safely assumed that many other attempts at trafficking have gone undetected or have been allowed to go undetected for a price. Indeed, this story of Rohingya moving out of Myanmar since early 1960s has become such a matter of global attention only from 2015 elections onwards when Myanmar has finally  labelled Rohingyas as not just ‘alien’ but also  suspect in their own homeland.

Second, earlier this month, the city of New York hosted the International Conference on Protection and Accountability in Burma calling on the international community to boycott the Myanmar government. They underlined how the Rohingyas, while being the most prosecuted, were not alone in their oppression as other ethnic minorities like the Karen, the Kachin and the Shan were also victims of state violence. The conference criticized the UN Security Council for not taking any action and also criticized Russia and China for obstructing this process. Backed by Russia, China has been raising strong objections refusing to allow UNSC to negotiate on the British proposal of December 2018 to impose a deadline on Myanmar to come out with a strategy for resolving the Rohingya conundrum.  This conference in New York was preceded by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressing “enormous frustration” on Myanmar being “too slow” in allowing the Rohingya Muslims to return home. So the most powerful nations  in the international system today seem either disinterested, or helpless or standing by the operations of the  Myanmar Army.

Third, on 11^th February,  the leaders of the Cox’s Bazar Civil Society Organisation-Non Governmental Organisation (CSO-NGO) Forum addressed the local press club in which they roundly accused various international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) of appropriating huge sums of money for their own benefits instead of helping the Rohingya cause. The co-chair of the Cox’s Bazar CSO-NGO Forum, Abu Morshed Chowdhury Khoka said there were 123 local and international NGOs working in the Rohingya Camps. Most of them, he said, had come from outside, raised funds in the name of helping Rohingya refugees, but spent these on luxury SUVs, five-star hotels rooms, and other amenities for their own people. Does this sound familiar? International relief agencies have often been accused of using the bulk of the funds they have raised for their own upkeep, while  donors have been accused of using the bulk of their aid to enable recipient states to purchase goods and services from the same donor at exorbitant costs, which effectively meant that the donors were deriving profits from the aid they were doling out. All this has continued unabated, making all natural or manmade disasters witness formidable mismanagement, duplication, pilferage, and corruption. The Rohingya crisis, unsurprisingly therefore, is no exception.

Meanwhile, what is becoming increasingly evident is that the Rohingya crisis is not limited to Myanmar alone, or to Bangladesh which is also showing exasperation. Like most other prosecuted minorities, the Rohingya people have silently dispersed across several countries across the world. This has been triggered by the fact that Myanmar never recognized them as its citizens. In 2013, therefore, whereas Myanmar had 735,000 Rohingya people, over 1 million of them had already moved to other Asian destinations. Other than Bangladesh, which has lately been in the news for providing shelter camps for over 700,00 Rohingyas, Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal was the first one in mid-1960s to allowed ‘safe heavens’ and today the kingdom of Saudi Arabia hosts over 400,000 Rohingya people. But shifting attitudes after King Faisal’s death resulted in thousands of Rohingya being deported and restricted. Only last month UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee criticised Saudi Arabia for deporting 12 Rohingyas to Bangladesh and members of the community  seem no longer welcome in Saudi Arabia.

Bangladesh had also over the years accumulated over 300,000 Rohingyas, largely around the Chittagong hill tracts, while Pakistan, Thailand, and India respectively had over 200,000, 150,000 and 40,000 Rohingya. Malaysia, which has lately become a major destination, now hosts little over 40,000 Rohingya according to UNHCR. In each of these host nations both the Rohingya communities as also the state apparatus has been pushed to the edge eroding mutual understanding and trust. India — which is the world’s second largest Muslim nation and which had so far continued with an open door policy of “non-refoulement” for refugees, especially from its neighboring countries– now makes a distinction in allowing only scorched minorities facing political prosecution. India now expects majority communities to stay in their home nations where India is happy to help in relief and reconstruction. This of course does not fully explain India’s take on Rohingya refugees where its rather cautious stance is explained in terms of India’s security concerns.  The number of Rohingyas in India have shrunk in the recent past. About 230 Rohingyas were arrested during 2018 and seven of them were also deported last October to Bangladesh. This has created a fear psychosis in the members of the community and, according to the Inter Sector Coordination Group that also includes UN agencies, the first fortnight of the last month has seen over 1,300 Rohingyas crossing over from India to Bangladesh.

 Bangladesh’s exemplary initiatives in hosting 740,000 Rohingya refugees has elicited enormous praise for Sheikh Hasina. However, the rising numbers of refugees and with no end of the crisis in sight has seen fatigue setting in in Bangladesh as well. In spite of the occasional high-profile visits of Bollywood or Hollywood celebrities that hog media headlines, Rohingya camps set up by Bangladesh since August 2017 are bursting at the seams and are generating fears of pandemics, crime, and corruption of all kinds. Living on the edge creates an environment of tension, crime, and radicalisation of all able bodied individuals,  with dangerous prospects.  The UN has so far passed a rather broad and inane non-binding resolution urging Myanmar to recognize the Rohingyas as their citizens and put a stop to violence, hate-speech, displacement, and economic deprivation of various ethnic and religious minorities. But mainstream narratives inside Myanmar do not see Rohingya as victims alone but perpetrators and terrorists as well which complicates matters.

 After mass graves were unearthed near the Malaysian border — suspected of being those of the Rohingya and Bangladesh migrants who were perhaps held there by their traffickers and then left to die — both Indonesia and Malaysia agreed since last May to allow their boats to anchor, though not to recognize them even as refugees.  UNHCR has so far made some inroads, issuing identity documents to Rohingyas in several of these countries including in Malaysia, Indonesia, and India in the hope that this measure  will protect them from deportations. But this is no guarantee of their peaceful existence or safe return home.

 It is recommended that as first step stakeholders  appreciate that the Rohingya crisis remain much more complex, widespread, and deeper than generally understood. Its recent upsurge may have also been partly triggered by an explosion of democratic impulses and it will find solutions only in strengthening democratic norms and systems of people’s participation. The process of denial of their identities and civil rights that had begun with the 1947 constitution gradually made most political parties and officials believe that Rohingya are ‘Bengalis’ and then the military rule since 1962 concretized the discourse on only Burman Buddhist being loyal citizens. It was the late 2015 elections where political populism and polemics finally made the Rohingya refugees in their own homeland. While addressing the crisis-management-crisis on day to day basis remains inevitable, rectification at a deeper level of providing identity and security would require long haul concrete efforts used on the clear understanding and consensus about the enormity of this challenge and how it engulfs several Asian nations.

The author is professor, Jawaharlal Nehru Univeristy (New Delhi) and senior fellow, Institute for National Security Studies Sri Lanka (Colombo).

Aditi Bhaduri

See author's posts