The repatriation of Rohingya is unlikely to start by December next even though the refugee crisis unfolded three years ago.
General elections in Myanmar, Covid pandemic and the insurgency in Arakan have emerged as the main barriers to starting repatriation.
Against this backdrop, Bangladesh on Monday made it clear it will "certainly not prefer any sort of investments, which will directly or indirectly prolong the refugee situation, creating newer pull factor for remaining Rohingya inside Rakhine."
While detailing Bangladesh's approach towards the Rohingya crisis foreign secretary Masud bin Momen, said, "Bangladesh rejects any notion about local integration and expects interested partners to talk with the Myanmar government and make such long-term investments in health, education, livelihood, connectivity for Rohingya in northern Rakhine."
On August 25, 2017, the Myanmar security agencies began a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims involving mass killings, rape, and arson, which forced over 740,000 to flee, mostly to Bangladesh, which was already hosting an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 refugees from earlier exoduses dating back to early the 1980s.
Asked about the latest development on Rohingya repatriation, foreign minister Dr Momen admitted that some important bilateral meetings between Bangladesh and Myanmar could not be held due to the Covid pandemic.
Myanmar also deferred many meetings on the excuse of its upcoming general elections, the minister added.
But the foreign minister brushed aside the allegation of diplomatic failure was responsible for the delay in repatriation.
"This is a not a quick process like an electric switch, it takes time," Dr Momen said.
At the same time, he noted the response from the Myanmar side was not all satisfactory.
The foreign minister made it clear Bangladesh wants to resolve the crisis through peaceful negotiation.
"We do not want to be engaged in war with our neighbour" he added.
Bangladesh has sent a list of 600,000 Rohingya refugees for verification, but Myanmar did only 30,000 of the total.
The foreign minister also felt the engagement of China in the process was crucial to resolving the crisis.
The foreign secretary also said Myanmar has generally failed to appreciate Bangladesh's friendly approach and showed indifference to persistent overtures of friendship to develop the sectoral cooperation and friendly people-to-people contacts.
"At Myanmar's insistence and the encouragement of a few other countries, Bangladesh tried repatriation twice, he said.
"The failure of these efforts attest to the fact that the Rohingya do not feel comfortable in the prevailing condition, which does not make returnees convinced of the sincerity of the Myanmar authorities and also of the majority-Buddhist state of Rakhine" he added.
According to the secretary, many international interlocutors are found trying to appease Myanmar while heaping all their demands on the doorstep of Bangladesh, the second victim of the Rohingya crisis.
"We are now faced with a strategy on the part of Myanmar authorities to do nothing to restore normalcy in Rakhine, but to create difficulty for prospective returnees, and finally to do whatever needed to frustrate efforts to repatriation," the foreign secretary said.
So far, the Rohigya has impacted the socio-economic landscape of Bangladesh.
The Rohingya influx has triggered a demographic imbalance in Cox's Bazar. The number of local population in Ukhia and Tekhnaf is about 570,000; whereas that of refugees is double of the size of host communities.
Bangladesh has sacrificed over 6,800 acres of forest land to host the displaced Rohingya from Myanmar.
That area suffered a huge loss of biodiversity and wildlife.
Deforestation in the hilly areas has increased the risk of landslides, raised the threats to flash flood, and intensified the likelihood of damages from cyclones.
Agricultural production in Cox's Bazar has been affected as most of the cultivable lands there are being used for shelters, operational activities and infrastructure of the UN agencies and others.
Water crisis and sanitation problem loom large in the region due to the huge refugee pressure.
And there is also an "alarming" growth in criminal activities, he said.
"The involvement of Rohingya in various crimes- human trafficking, drug, murder, abduction for ransom, sex trade, rape, thefts and robbery are higher than the host communities. Radicalisation of youth cannot be ruled out altogether in a situation of despair and hopelessness," the foreign secretary said.
"As such, Bangladesh had no option but to consider erection of barbed-wire fences around the camps to curb criminal activities in the area. These are not for their isolation, but for their good and security of locals. It must be mentioned here that access to humanitarian actors remains unhindered," he pointed out.
On the international front, some development has taken place as regards putting pressure on Myanmar recently.
In November 2019, Gambia, on behalf of the 57-seven-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, filed the first international lawsuit against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice, accusing the country of violating the UN Genocide Convention.
The court unanimously ruled in January 2020 that must take emergency measures to protect the Rohingya from violence and preserve evidence of possible genocide. A final ruling in the case could take years.
Separately, the ICC authorised a probe into alleged atrocities in November 2019.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have faced heightened restrictions on rights to information, movement, access to education, and health.
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