The fear that the nearly 1.0 million Rohingyas who have entered Bangladesh until now to escape persecution would never go back to their ancestral homeland -Myanmar --has gained strength lately. The developments and statements coming from men of authority are responsible for leading people to draw their conclusion.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith last week expressed his doubt over repatriation of Rphingyas and said there would be allocation in the next budget to meet expenditures involving those refugees.
Some months back Bangladesh and Myanmar struck deals where the latter promised to take back the Rohingyas, who entered the land of the former since August last, in phases. But there is no sign that the Myanmar is taking any sort of preparations to implement the agreement. Rather the opposite is happening. Rohingyas are still coming to Bangladesh in the face of unending persecution in Myanmar, albeit in lesser numbers.
Strong criticism directed towards the Myanmar government, its army in particular, from all over the world except for a handful of countries has hardly left any impact. The rogue Myanmar administration is giving a damn to strong negative global reaction to its atrocities in the Rakhine state that actually belongs to the Rohingyas.
What is worse is that it has strengthened its security presence in the borders along Bangladesh. However, Bangladesh is showing its utmost patience in the face of provocation. But many tend to believe that the government has been unduly soft while dealing with Myanmar. Questions are also being asked about the deals that Bangladesh struck with Myanmar on Rohingya repatriation. Even Bangladesh officials soon after the deal-signing admitted that Bangladesh agreed on the process of repatriation suggested by Myanmar. Still then not a single Rohingya refugee has gone back till date.
Bangladesh is now making preparation for rehabilitating the Rohingya refugees in a coastal island and feeding them for some more time. Seen from the humanitarian perspective, the move would invariably receive appreciation. And that is what has happened during the past few months; Bangladesh's role has been acclaimed world over for allowing more than 0.6 million Rohingyas to enter its territory. But the question is: Can Bangladesh afford to keep and feed so many refugees for long? International assistance for the refugees has already started declining and after some time there will be none.
The popular perception is that Myanmar would not take back the Rohingyas as the country is determined to get rid of this small religious minority at any cost. It may make promises to deceive Bangladesh and the international community, but it has made up its mind, that is for sure.
Under no circumstances, Bangladesh, a resource-scarce country, can allow such a large number of refugees to stay for long. It seems that the government, for one reason or other, is not taking a tough diplomatic stance on the issue. However, the USA and European Union have been very vocal against the Myanmar military actions against the Rohingyas. Political reasons might have prompted such reaction, but it goes well with the Bangladesh cause.
There is yet another danger of allowing the Rohingyas to stay in Bangladesh territory for long. Such accommodative and soft attitude might encourage some other neighbour to 'push the so-called Bengali-speaking Muslim settlers from Indian state of Assam into Bangladesh. Such communal demand has gained strength in recent months in many Indian states and many Bengali-speaking Muslims are facing the threat of 'deportation'. It may be mentioned that some years back two neighbours had experienced some tensions over 'push-in' and 'push back' of some groups of people.
It is true Bangladesh cannot throw the Rohingyas out of its land forcibly. But it cannot allow them to stay for long either. So, the government does need to take a tough stance on the issue, bilaterally and internationally. It has to solve this delicate problem.
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