No Rohingya refugees were repatriated till Thursday noon as no assurance could be secured for the Rohingyas to help them rescued from Myanmar army’s brutality. The Rohingyas came to us for help to save their lives. They did not come here as economic migrants for a comfortable life.
In a fresh attempt, 3,450 Rohingya people were scheduled to be repatriated to Myanmar on Thursday Before any repatriation takes place, refugees are taken to transit camps and kept there for two to three days, but as of Thursday, no Rohingya man was taken to any of the two transit camps — one at Keruntoli in Teknaf and the other in Ghundhum border area in Naikkhongchhari of Bandarban. In early August, Bangladesh provided the approved list to the UNHCR in Dhaka and sought its assistance assessing their willingness to return to Myanmar. Accordingly, UNHCR and RRRC officials conducted an “intention survey” on those listed, although it could not be ascertained how many took part in it.
It is silly and inhuman to mistreat the intention of Rohingyas because they certainly want to go back but not to be brutalised by Myanmar army. The Myanmar army’s inhumanity is already condemned by international community. This army has earned to be cruel and killer of unarmed Rohingya civilians only because they are Muslims. Bangladesh government totally failed to take advantage of overwhelming global sympathy for Bangladesh. On the other hand, Bangladesh relied on some incompetent bureaucrats and Foreign Ministry officials.
And China’s advice that the crisis could be solved bilaterally with international help was also proved wrong. Both India and China have their own interest not to disturb Myanmar. Our bureaucracy is again wrongly misled the government not knowing Bangladesh has not created strong positions for others to take seriously the Rohingya issue.
While China and India have both expressed their willingness to help Bangladesh but so far it has not resulted in any concrete commitment about assurance of safety of the Rohingyas in Myanmar.
The government of Bangladesh shamefully avoided international cooperation by claiming that it could alone make an understanding with Myanmar. But now it has proved that Myanmar at the last stage dodged Bangladesh.
We find no justification to such useless Foreign Ministry under the present Foreign Minister who can say so ignorantly that the refugees are comfortable here away from their home and property. He does not know that their life would be much better than many of us in Myanmar.
It is better for us to seek the United Nations’ help because refugee problem is an international problem.
