THE Rohingyas, more than a million of them already sheltered in Bangladesh, may face constraints as, keeping to a release of the office of the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees, there has been a fresh influx of 150,000 Rohingyas in a year and a half. This is described as the largest after the 2017 influx when three quarters of a million Rohingyas left violence and persecution in Rakhine State into Bangladesh. There are fears that health services for the Rohingyas across Cox’s Bazar camps could be severely disrupted by September. Food assistance for camp dwellers would stop by December. The World Food Programme in early March sounded the warning on the reduction in food aid for the Rohingyas citing a fund shortage as the reason for the decision. The education of some 240,000 children, including 63,000 fresh arrivals, could also be discontinued. The UNHCR office has called for more financial assistance from humanitarian partners, noting that fresh arrivals are largely dependent on the solidarity of the Rohingyas living in the camps, putting them among the world’s most densely populated places.
The UNHCR release, which says that 121,000 of the fresh arrivals have already been biometrically registered by June, notes that the ongoing conflict, targeted violence and persecution in Rakhine State in Myanmar continue, forcing thousands, overwhelmingly women and children, to cross the border into Bangladesh seeking safety. The UNHCR office, however, fears that more of the Rohingyas could be residing informally in the overcrowded camps. When the repatriation of the Rohingyas has become uncertain, with a series of attempts having failed since 2017, and conflict, violence and persecution continue in Rakhine State, more of the Rohingyas enter Bangladesh and live in camps amidst overstretching the severely diminished resources, prompting the UNHCR office to put out the call for financial assistance from humanitarian partners. All this makes it a bad proposition for both the Rohingyas, who are left with their rights almost strangled, and the Bangladesh authorities, who are pushed into trouble in the management of the Rohingya issues because humanitarian partners appear unwilling to shell out adequate money. And, in all this, the Rohingyas sheltered in Bangladesh are left with a bleak future, with hopes for a graceful, sustainable voluntary repatriation to Rakhine State.
This appears to be happening because of the inability of Bangladesh to boldly take up the issue with bilateral, regional and international forums and the inability of world leaders, or world forums, to make the repatriation happen. It is time they acted on this and continued funding the Rohingya management until the repatriation happened.
