HRW urges Bangladesh to halt Rohingya repatriation
Staff Reporter :
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the donor governments and the United Nation experts to halt any Rohingya repatriation until conditions are in place for safe and sustainable return.
HRW on Thursday stated that the Rohingya repatriation organised by Bangladesh and Myanmar without consulting the community or addressing the grave risks to their lives and liberty would push the returnees to face Junta’s crimes of apartheid and persecution.
The organisation said since 2017, the Bangladesh government has respected the international principle of non-refoulement, the right of refugees not to be returned to a country where their lives or freedom would be threatened.
“Bangladesh should continue to uphold its policy of not forcing Rohingya refugees to return to Myanmar under current conditions,” said Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“Donor governments should help ease this difficult situation by supporting Bangladesh to create opportunities for Rohingya to learn and work so that they’re better prepared to go home when that day comes,” she said.
HRW stated that on May 5, Bangladesh officials, in coordination with Myanmar Junta authorities, took 20 Rohingya refugees to Rakhine State to visit resettlement camps as part of renewed efforts to repatriate about 1,100 Rohingya in a pilot project, it said.
“Bangladesh authorities shouldn’t forget the reasons why Rohingya became refugees in the first place, and recognise that none of those factors have changed,” Bauchner said.
“Bangladesh is frustrated with its burden as host, but sending refugees back to the control of a ruthless Myanmar junta
will just be setting the stage for the next devastating exodus,” she said.
HRW stated that about 600,000 Rohingya remain in Rakhine State, confined to squalid camps and villages that leave them exceptionally vulnerable to extreme weather events such as Cyclone Mocha, compounded by the Junta’s severe restrictions on humanitarian aid.
Human Rights Watch spoke with five Rohingya refugees who were part of the go-and-see visit. They said that, the detention-like conditions and lack of full citizenship rights were not conducive to a safe return.
“We are not at all satisfied seeing the Rakhine situation,” a Rohingya refugee said. “It’s another trap by Myanmar to take us back and then continue the abuses like they have been doing to us for decades.”
Rohingya refugees have consistently said they want to go home, but only when their security, access to land and livelihoods, freedom of movement, and citizenship rights can be ensured.
The Rohingya delegation visited the Hla Poe Kaung transit camp and Kyein Chaung resettlement camp in Rakhine State’s Maungdaw township. The camps were built by Myanmar authorities on Rohingya land that Myanmar security forces burned and bulldozed in 2017 and 2018. The transit camp is surrounded by barbed-wire perimeter fencing and security outposts, similar to the confinement in the Rohingya detention camps in Sittwe and other townships in central Rakhine State.
“I could see my village,” a Rohingya refugee said of the visit. “The Hla Poe Kaung transit camp land used to be my home. My house was destroyed, my school is now a health center. Three whole Rohingya villages used to be where the transit camp is now. Myanmar authorities are trying to confine us in camps like in Sittwe.”
HRW further stated that conditions in Rakhine State have not been conducive to voluntary, safe, or dignified returns of Rohingya refugees since 2017, when more than 730,000 Rohingya fled the Myanmar military’s crimes against humanity and acts of genocide.
The prospect of safe returns has decreased since the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar, carried out by the same generals who orchestrated the 2017 mass atrocities.
HRW further stated that Myanmar Junta officials provide Rohingya refugees with booklets outlining the government’s plan for their return, including temporary housing at Hla Poe Kaung transit camp and subsequent relocation to resettlement camps or designated villages.
The booklet mentions deploying security personnel to ensure law and order. The Junta claims involvement of UN agencies, but the UNHCR states it is not engaged in the pilot project due to unfavorable conditions in Rakhine State.
The reference to National Verification Cards (NVCs) in the booklet raised concerns among Rohingya as they view it as a form of identification that denies them Myanmar citizenship and limits their freedom of movement, HRW said.
