Nat’l consensus needed to tackle Rohingya issue

Bangladesh needs to develop a national consensus on solving the Rohingya crisis that has become more complicated by the civil war in Myanmar, particularly in Rakhine State, said Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain.

"We gained much less than what we could have as there was no national consensus on the Rohingya policy," he said, urging the political parties to build the national consensus.

Touhid was addressing a national dialogue on Rohingya policy, organised by the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) of North South University at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) yesterday.

Bangladesh hosts more than one million Rohingya. Since July, more than 50,000 more Myanmar people, including the Rohingya and other ethnic groups, took shelter in Bangladesh amid fierce fighting between the Myanmar junta and rebel group Arakan Army (AA).

The AA now controls a large part of the Rakhine State, from where over 7.5 lakh Rohingya fled to Bangladesh amid a military crackdown in 2017.

Despite repeated attempts bilaterally with Myanmar and trilaterally involving China, no Rohingya repatriation has taken place since the largest influx in 2017.

Touhid said Bangladesh needs minimum deterrence not for war but to demonstrate strength and go for multilateral negotiation.

He said Bangladesh cannot engage any non-state actor of Myanmar. However, the fact that the AA controls 80 percent of Rakhine State, the Rohingya problem cannot be addressed without the support of the AA. In that case, Bangladesh also cannot ignore AA.

The adviser said he favours providing education to Rohingya children up to class X and imparting skills training before they are repatriated.

Dr Khalilur Rahman, the high representative of the chief adviser for Rohingya and priority affairs, said the Rohingya issue has almost lost the attention of the global community.

The current government is trying to bring the international community's attention back to the crisis through the UN Conference on Rohingya early next year.

BNP Standing Committee Member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury agreed that Bangladesh needs to have a comprehensive Rohingya policy and national consensus on the matter.

He also stressed enhancing security along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border and boosting trade between the two countries.

Amir Khasru also advocated for improving relations between various ethnic communities, especially between the Rohingya and the Rakhine in Myanmar's Rakhine State.

Jamaat-e-Islami leader AHM Mamidur Rahman Azad said the Rohingya refugees should have better health and education facilities, although their presence in Cox's Bazar is creating serious security problem along the entire southeastern region of Bangladesh.

Prof SK Tawfique M Haque, director at the SIPG, said Bangladesh has been providing humanitarian support to the Rohingya, although they have not been officially recognised as refugees. In that case, the government can think of granting them refugee status.

The idea of a safe zone or humanitarian corridor that Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus is advocating for can also be an option to prevent further Rohingya influx from Myanmar to Bangladesh, he added.

SIPG Senior Research Fellow Mohammad Sufiur Rahman, UN Resident Coordinator Gwyn Lewis, and UN Refugee Agency Country Representative Sumbul Rizvi, among others, spoke at the event.