The best possible solution

Since the re-escalation of tensions between the government of Myanmar and the Rohingya people in October 2016 and the reinvigorated persecution of the minority group that followed, thousands of Rohingyas have again fled to Bangladesh - the United Nations humanitarian office's most recent estimate is 69,000. Scores of them have, meanwhile, been seen begging on the streets between Ukhia and Teknaf in Cox's Bazar, as Bangladesh, with its lack of resources, struggled severely to deal with the crisis that Myanmar started.

Fast forward to today, the Bangladesh government on February 5 announced a plan to relocate thousands of Rohingya as stranded on its territory to Thengar Char in Hatiya in the Bay of Bengal. While revealing its plans, the government sought financial support from the UN and the international community for the relocation project. Describing the miserable condition that the Rohingyas are now living in, in the coastal areas of Bangladesh, the Foreign Minister said that the "authorities were facing formidable challenges of providing them with humanitarian assistances" ("Rohingya Relocation: Dhaka seeks help; diplomats sceptic", The Daily Star, February 6, 2017).

Optimistically, he said that the government would develop the remote island where the Rohingyas are planned to be relocated; but many, including foreign diplomats, have said that the Rohingyas "should not be moved against their will and that the place chosen for relocation was uninhabitable and prone to floods". This, the Foreign Minister has said, is not so. He said that the necessary infrastructure, including shelters, schools, hospitals/health centres, mosques, roads, etc., will be built by the government. And that the diplomats could even visit the island once the infrastructure is in place, to see for themselves whether the island was habitable or not.

This can hardly be a permanent solution. And the Foreign Minister himself has said so. For a permanent solution, the best case scenario would be for Myanmar to take the Rohingyas back, stop persecuting them anymore and provide them with citizenship and basic human rights. Given all that has happened and is happening, however, that, unfortunately, seems highly unlikely. But regardless, it has to be realised that it is the state of Myanmar that is guilty for the current mess and for committing horrific crimes against the Rohingya people.

Even the UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur, Yanghee Lee, last month criticised the Myanmar government's treatment of the country's Rohingya minority and said that its defensive reaction, when presented with claims of abuse, is eroding its credibility. These abuses she was referring to include killings, rape, assault, and much more. The UN's human rights office last week, for example, said that Myanmar's military had likely "killed hundreds of Rohingya" during a continuing crackdown in a "calculated policy of terror" against the minority group ("UN Report on Rohingya Abuses: Myanmar rejects criticism", The Daily Star, February 8, 2017).

The OHCHR said that the accounts of "torture, murder and gang-rape at the hands of security forces were so severe they may account to ethnic cleansing". Unfortunately, for various geostrategic reasons, most countries including the two most influential in this region — India and China — have been very reluctant to condemn Myanmar and to get significantly involved in resolving the Rohingya crisis.

But now that Myanmar's guilt is becoming ever clearer and the UN itself is speaking out against it, both these regional powers need to be more proactive in resolving the crisis. The reason Bangladesh has settled for the current plan proposed by its Foreign Minister is because it is receiving very little help from the international community with regards to the Rohingya crisis. It is almost as if Bangladesh too is being punished along with the Rohingyas by Myanmar and its endless persecution, more so because of the international community's lack of commitment and participation in the matter.

Not only is it unfair, but Bangladesh cannot deal with such a mammoth challenge on its own. It cannot take care of the thousands of Rohingyas that are fleeing to its territories. If things are left as they are, not only will the Rohingyas continue to suffer, but Bangladesh too, would suffer immensely — socio-economically, politically, demographically and environmentally — as its Foreign Minister has already stated.

And this is precisely what the international community and regional players must admit to themselves. From a humanitarian perspective, they owe it to the Rohingyas and the countries that are being destabilised because of what the Myanmar government is doing — including Bangladesh — to work towards a permanent solution. But from a long-term geostrategic perspective, countries in this region also need to realise that the long-term stability of this region and of their individual countries cannot be ensured and will only be endangered should they allow for the Rohingya crisis to continue and for Rohingya refugees to flood into neighbouring countries.

With all that in mind, the international community (particularly the countries of this region) as a collective must find a permanent solution for the Rohingya people while it works to implement a temporary one until a permanent solution can be agreed upon, instead of placing the entire burden of responsibility on Bangladesh.

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The writer is a member of the editorial team at The Daily Star.