By Porimol Palma
Aug 26 2020 (IPS-Partners)

When Bangladesh continues to bear the brunt of sheltering more than a million Rohingyas, Myanmar is doing little for their repatriation amid the silence of global powers though the Southeast Asian country faces a genocide case, experts and officials said.

About 750,000 Rohingyas — injured and starved — fled a brutal military crackdown since August 25, 2017, leaving their homes burnt and relatives killed. Bangladesh generously opened the border and sheltered them, but is now facing tremendous financial, ecological, and security challenges.

Even before 2017, some 300,000 other Rohingyas, who fled earlier waves of violence in Myanmar since 1978, were sheltered here.

Bangladesh hastily signed a repatriation deal with Myanmar in November 2017. The next year, UNHCR and UNDP signed a tripartite deal with Myanmar on creating conducive conditions for Rohingya return.

However, none of the demands of the refugees — guarantee of their safety, basic rights and citizenship — has been met Myanmar. As a result, two repatriation attempts — one on November 15 in 2018 and the second on August 22 last year — fell flat.

Even the provisional order issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in January this year has failed to help make any headway. Dozens of Rohingyas, along with hundreds of Rakhines, were killed and thousands were displaced as fighting between Myanmar military and Arakan Army raged in the recent months.

REPATRIATION EFFORTS SLOW

The meeting of Joint Working Group — comprised of officials from Myanmar and Bangladesh — was not held since May last year though two meetings are scheduled a year, officials concerned said.

“The second meeting was due in the last quarter of 2019. Myanmar pushed it forward to February this year but that also did not happen. Now Myanmar is using coronavirus as a pretext for not holding the meeting,” an official told The Daily Star.

In the last three years, Bangladesh sent the information of 6,00,000 Rohingyas to Myanmar, but the latter has provided Bangladesh with verified information of only 30,000.

Again, 30 to 40 percent of the 30,000 names were rejected.

There are cases that one was rejected and others were selected from a family for repatriation, but this proposition is not helpful in any way for the Rohingyas to return to Myanmar, the official said.

Dhaka had proposed Naypyidaw for a bilateral technical committee meeting to sort out these issues, but was responded with indifference, which is indicative of delaying Rohingya repatriation, he said.

Through informal discussion in January this year, the two sides agreed for a targeted approach. The idea is that Myanmar will find out the Rohingya villages least affected and then have a comprehensive plan for repatriation.

Accordingly, all the families of the villages concerned will be repatriated. A meeting was scheduled in February, but Myanmar did not show interest.

“Now Myanmar’s attitude is that you return our people, we will do what’s needed. Myanmar now seems more emboldened. This is because the global powers don’t have any coordinated approach to address the Rohingya issue. So, Myanmar can get away by doing anything,” the official said.

Nay San Lwin, a co-founder of Free Rohingya Coalition, said Myanmar also has made no attempt to amend discriminatory laws, including the citizenship, freedom of movement and education, which is very basic reforms required.

MYANMAR BENEFITS

Foreign policy experts say though there were sanctions from western countries on some military officials, the global powers are still largely divided over the Rohingya issue because of their geopolitical and business interests.

For example, the UN Security Council has failed to adopt any resolution yet in the last three years because of opposition from China and Russia, two veto powers.

Regional powers China, India, and Japan — all good friends of Bangladesh and Myanmar — want a bilateral solution to the Rohingya issue without putting pressure on Myanmar. The approach has not worked until now, analysts said.

Meanwhile, US imports from Myanmar have increased from $366 million in 2017 to $821 million in 2019. US exports also went up from $211 million in 2017 to $347 million in 2019, according to US Census Bureau.

Myanmar benefits from the European Union’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP), namely the “Everything But Arms” scheme that grants duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market.

According to the European Commission, Myanmar’s exports increased from €573 million in 2015 to an estimated €2.8 billion in 2019. Also, according to UN Comtrade data, Myanmar’s exports to UK went up from less than $300 million in 2017 to $536 million in 2019.

The businesses between Myanmar and other countries flourish though a UN fact-finding mission last year appealed for targeted sanctions, as well as an embargo on weapons sales to Myanmar, warning that a web of businesses run by Myanmar’s army is financing military operations on the Rohingyas.

The mission’s report identified at least 59 foreign companies — including firms from France, Belgium, Switzerland, Hong Kong, and China — that have dealings with army-linked ventures. It also named at least 14 companies that have sold arms to the Myanmar military, including state-owned entities in Israel, India, South Korea, and China.

BANGLADESH LOSES

With no repatriation in sight, Bangladesh is counting losses. A study by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) showed, the estimated cost of hosting the Rohingyas $1.2 billion a year in the first five years if there is no repatriation for sheltering and providing them humanitarian assistance.

“Gradually, the cost will increase given the decline in foreign funding, population growth and inflation,” CDP Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun told this correspondent on August 21.

The study also said around 7,000 acres were deforested due to the Rohingya settlement — having long term ecological implications in the region, a tourist district of the country.

A study by COAST Trust, an NGO working in the country’s coastal belt, says transport cost went up by 35 percent and house rent by 60 percent since the Rohingya influx, while wages for laborers went down because of more labour supply from the Rohingya community.

“These issues have given rise to Rohingya-local tension,” said COAST Trust Executive Director Rezaul Karim Chowdhury. Also, lack of any income-generating activities and education facilities gave rise to crimes like drug trafficking, human trafficking, and prostitution, he said.

“It is very likely that militant elements will grow in the camps if the provisions of education, income, and better housing are not created.”

Prof Imtiaz Ahmed, director of the Centre for Genocide Studies at Dhaka University, said lingering of repatriation means the rise of human trafficking through the sea and extremist ideologies — that will ultimately affect the entire region’s development.

China, Japan and India — all have their large investments both in Bangladesh and Myanmar — and they should come forward to creating conditions conducive for Rohingya return at the earliest, he said.

“Myanmar may use fighting between Arakan Army and its military as a pretext. In that case, a combined force of China, Japan, India, and ASEAN can help create a safe zone as sought by the Rohingya,” said Prof Imtiaz, who teaches international relations.

LIGHT OF HOPE?

Prof Imtiaz said the good thing is that the ICJ in its verdict acknowledged the ethnic identity of the Rohingya. Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi also used the word “Arakanese Muslims” in the ICJ hearing in December last year — it’s a step towards Rohingya’s recognition.

“Justice at the ICJ may take time, but must happen. Germany paid reparations for genocide against the Jews. Eventually, Bangladesh also should claim reparations from Myanmar for the enormous cost it’s bearing for Rohingya influx,” Prof Imtiaz said.

Rezaul Karim Chowdhury said Dhaka must go for creative diplomacy, involving the regional civil societies, academia and media, apart from state actors, to create a broader consensus on the Rohingya repatriation and justice.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

Rohingya refugees. Reuters file photo

By Porimol Palma
May 3 2019 (IPS-Partners)

(The Daily Star) – Some one million Rohingyas face serious health risks due to acute air and water pollution in the crammed camps of Cox’s Bazar, says a new study that assessed environmental conditions in one of the world’s largest refugee settlements.

The use of firewood as the main fuel in the small tents with no ventilation facilities, high frequency of vehicular movement, proximity of drinking water points to latrines and absence of a proper waste management are the main factors posing danger to the refugees.

Diarrhoea, fever, jaundice, cough and skin, heart and respiratory diseases have become some of the very common health problems in the camps, said the study.

The study was conducted in June-December 2018 by the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) with support from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Istiakh Ahmed, coordinator of the study, said extensively polluted air and water create serious health risks for the refugees. “It’s imperative to act swiftly to cut the risk factors,” he told The Daily Star last week.

AIR QUALITY

Air quality analysis in the refugee camps showed the level of carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were higher both indoors and outdoors than Bangladesh standard.

Bangladesh standard for CO2 is 350 parts per million (ppm) but the study found it between 600 to 1,207ppm at the Rohingya camps.

The standard for NO2 is 0.057ppm but in Rohingya camps it was up to 0.1ppm. The level of volatile organic compounds (VOC) or organic chemicals in air was also very high, the report said.

High levels of carbon dioxide can displace oxygen and nitrogen, potentially causing acute and chronic health effects, the report said.

“Breathing in high amounts of carbon dioxide can also be life threatening. Prolonged exposure to carbon dioxide may cause changes in bone calcium and body metabolism,” said the report.

Excessive levels of these gases may cause some acute and chronic health effects such as suffocation, incapacitation and unconsciousness, headaches, vertigo and double vision, inability to concentrate, tinnitus and seizures, it added.

During the survey, 61 percent of the respondents were being treated for medical conditions like wheezing, tightness of chest, rapid breathing, eczema, high fever, skin irritation, shortness of breath and burning or irritated eyes.

Increased transportation and use of firewood and deforestation could be the potential factors for the rise in such gases, the report said.

The study found that 76 percent households in Rohingya camps typically cook at least thrice a day in the rooms with no ventilation facilities. Besides, some 2,000 hectares of forest was destroyed due to the Rohingya settlement and firewood collection.

Particulate matter, or solid and liquid particles suspended in air, in November last year was significantly higher than the Bangladesh standard.

Exposure to such inhalable particles can affect lungs and heart, and children and older adults may be at greater risk from exposure to those.

About volatile organic compounds, the report said higher concentrations of VOC may cause irritation of lungs as well as damage to the liver, kidney or central nervous system.

WATER

The ICCCAD analysis found all surface water samples and a significant (highest 62 percent) number of groundwater samples tested contain coliforms, a group of bacteria. One of its possible reasons could be the proximity of tube wells to latrines.

Additionally, manganese was detected in 48 percent tested samples at concentrations higher than the Bangladesh standard (0.1 mg/L), which may impede cognitive development in children.

Survey results showed that diseases and illnesses such as diarrhoea, coughing and skin diseases are major concerns in the camp area. Since 38 percent of the surveyed water supply lines are passing through the drainage system, chances of spread of diseases from waste are higher.

The report says only 17 percent respondents throw their waste in a public bin while others do it in the open space.

There is no proper drainage system in the camps — around 30 percent of them are mud-built, 37 percent open, and only 19 percent concrete drains. The disposed waste stays for a longer period of time, polluting the atmosphere.

This inadequate drainage facility results in foul odour and spreads mosquitoes and flies. While this study could not explore if there was any connection between unmanaged solid waste and camp health issues, 623 respondents showed concerns about poor waste management in their areas.

The ICCCAD recommended creating environmental awareness within the Rohingyas and local communities, engaging them in its protection, setting up a proper drainage system and sewage treatment facilities and ensuring solid waste management.

Alternative energy sources including quality cooking stoves for all refugees would greatly reduce indoor air pollution caused by firewood burning, it said.

Dr Azharul Islam Khan, head of hospitals at ICDDR,B, said he has no idea of air pollution in Rohingya camps but water and sanitation status is much better than the initial days of the influx in 2017.

“Also, massive cholera vaccine and health campaigns were undertaken. These measures helped prevent outbreak of diseases,” he told this correspondent.

The ICDDR,B official, however, expressed worries that shortage of funding may be an issue in terms of promoting health campaigns — something that the international community needs to look at.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

Excerpt:

By Porimol Palma
Mar 28 2019 (IPS-Partners)

(The Daily Star) – A transnational human-trafficking syndicate committed crimes against humanity in Malaysia and Thailand against the Rohingya from 2012 to 2015, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) and Fortify Rights, a nongovernment rights body, have found in a six-year investigation.

During 2012-15, more than 170,000 people boarded ships from Myanmar and Bangladesh bound for Malaysia and Thailand, and the trade over Rohingyas is estimated to have generated between $50 and $100 million a year.

At sea and in the camps of Thai and Malaysian borders, the trafficking network committed “murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation or forcible transfer, imprisonment, torture, and rape, as part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against Rohingya civilians from Myanmar and Bangladesh” with knowledge of the widespread and systematic attack underway, the report said.

The majority of people trafficked were Rohingya Muslims, but in late 2014 and 2015, traffickers began to target Bangladeshi nationals as well, says the joint report “Sold Like Fish” released in Bangkok yesterday.

“The Commission and Fortify Rights therefore have reasonable grounds to believe that human-trafficking networks committed crimes against humanity at sea and in camps in Malaysia and Thailand against Rohingya civilians from 2012 to 2015,” said the report.

It comes at a time when the world witnesses one of the biggest refugee crisis as some 750,000 Rohingyas fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where they are denied citizenship and basic rights, since August 2017.

Escalation of conflicts between Arakan Army and Myanmar military is currently displacing thousands in Rakhine state.

Meanwhile, dozens of cases of trafficking of Rohingyas from the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar to Malaysia and Indonesia made headlines in recent months.

“The victims of these crimes and their families suffered tremendously, and these horrific crimes should never happen again in Malaysia and anywhere else for that matter,” said SUHAKAM Commissioner Jerald Joseph in a statement.

WHAT HAPPENED IN 2012-2015?

On April 30, 2015, the Thai authorities discovered more than 30 bodies in a mass grave in a makeshift camp near Malaysian border. Then on May 25 the same year, Malaysian police announced discovery of 139 graves and 28 suspected human-trafficking camps in Wang Kelian, Perlis State.

The discoveries led to a crackdown against human traffickers only to find another crisis in the sea where some 5000 to 6000 victims of human trafficking — believed to be Rohingyas and Bangladeshis — were found drifting in rickety boats. After initial reluctance, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia rescued them.

The investigation is based on more than 270 interviews with eyewitnesses, survivors, human traffickers, government officials, and others from 2013 to 2019.

It revealed traffickers piled hundreds and thousands of Rohingya refugees into repurposed fishing vessels and deprived them of adequate food, water, and space, committing torture and, in some cases, rape at sea.

Traffickers murdered captives, and many died by suicide at sea. In the Thai and Malaysian jungle camps, traffickers provided their captives with three options: raise upwards of $2,000 in exchange for release, be sold into further exploitation, or die in the camps, the report said.

Members of a syndicate tortured, killed, raped, and otherwise abused untold numbers of men, women, and children, buying and selling them systematically in many cases, in concert with government officials.

Traffickers from Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaysia denied their captives access to adequate food, water, and space, resulting in deaths, illness, and injury. They tortured Rohingya captives with pipes, bats, clubs, belts, wires, tasers, nails, threats and intimidation, and other means, the report said.

“When I was unable to pay the money to the men, they poured boiling water on my head and body,” said a Rohingya Muslim who was 16 years old when traffickers tortured him in a camp on the Malaysia-Thailand border in 2014.

The perpetrators also murdered or caused the death of captives and buried bodies in mass graves and, in some cases, forced captives to bury bodies.

“People died every day,” said a 20-year-old Rohingya woman who survived a human-trafficking camp on the border. “Some days more, some days less, but people died every day.”

Traffickers also systematically sold untold numbers of Rohingya women and girls into forced marriages and situations of domestic servitude in Malaysia, said the report.

“For years, this was a calculated business and attack on the Rohingya community,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights.

“The massive scale and horrific severity of these operations were never properly documented or fully prosecuted. This new evidence demonstrates the need for accountability.”

However, that still remains a far cry. In 2017, Thailand convicted 62 defendants, including nine Thai government officials, for crimes related to the human trafficking. Since 2015, Malaysian courts convicted only four non-Malaysian persons of trafficking-related offences connected to the mass graves discovered at Wang Kelian in Perlis.

Eyewitness testimonies indicate the complicity or, in some cases, direct involvement of government authorities in the transnational trade over Rohingya refugees. Thai authorities extra-judicially transferred or sold them from state custody to members of a transnational human-trafficking syndicate, the report said.

Late last month, Malaysia created a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate and ensure accountability for the human trafficking and mass graves in Wang Kelian.

“There’s a fresh political will in Malaysia to right these wrongs and ensure justice and accountability for Rohingya and all victims of these heinous crimes,” said Jerald Joseph of SUHAKAM.

SUHAKAM and Fortify Rights demand protection of the survivors of these attacks under Malaysian law as survivors of human trafficking, and, in the case of Rohingya, protection as refugees.

The Malaysia government should put into place measures to prevent such crimes from occurring again, the report said.

“The international community should do everything in its power to address the root causes of this crisis in Myanmar.”

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The November 15 attempt to repatriate Rohingyas to Myanmar has failed. And that was destined too, despite wholehearted efforts from Bangladesh. Although Myanmar officials were quick to blame their Bangladesh counterparts for the “failure”, the ground reality provided a different picture.

Not a single Rohingya, listed in the first batch of 2,251 verified refugees supposed to return to their country on November 15, volunteered to go home. On the contrary, many of them staged demonstrations against the move while some tried to flee the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.

The fear of brutality they were subjected to by the Myanmar military when they were displaced from their homes in the Rakhine state understandably gripped them. Interviewed, they asked some burning questions, “Why should we return? Do you want us to return to a death camp? Do you want us to commit suicide? Can you guarantee that we would survive once we return?”

The Rohingyas also demand that for a voluntary return, the Myanmar government should reinstate them in their original homes, guarantee citizenship, safety and basic rights, including health, education and freedom of movement.

Until now, Myanmar has done little to fulfil those demands or made a sincere effort to remove the fears through a reconciliation campaign between people of different faiths. Therefore, the tactic of blaming Bangladesh now is as baseless as it was when the repatriation did not start on January 23 under a bilateral agreement, when there was no arrangement for determining the voluntariness.

This time the UN Refugee Agency, through individual interviews, concluded that the refugees are not volunteering to return. It is an essential procedure for refugee repatriation. The agency, which is also assessing the situation in Rakhine state, said the conditions there were not conducive for the return of the refugees.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, after a meeting with foreign diplomats in Dhaka on November 15, confirmed that Bangladesh in no way wants forced repatriation. Japan, meanwhile, proposed that a group of Rohingya be allowed to visit the arrangements in Rakhine—a proposal that goes in line with that of UNHCR—to see for themselves the conditions there and decide if they would return. Bangladesh is likely to take up the issue with Myanmar soon.

But how fruitful that attempt from Bangladesh—sincere in all its efforts for voluntary, sustainable and dignified Rohingya repatriation—would be with a country in complete denial is a big question.

The world has lauded Bangladesh’s efforts in accommodating over a million Rohingya refugees. Bangladesh is also braving immense socio-economic, environmental and diplomatic challenges because of a problem created by Myanmar since 1982 when it curtailed citizenship of the Rohingya and many basic rights though they have been living there for generations.

Myanmar argues that the Rohingya militant attack triggered the military campaign in August last year, but its argument is weak as there is a greater question why Myanmar’s military junta curtailed Rohingya citizenship in 1982. That’s the root of all the subsequent problems—communal tension between the Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine and low level of development works in Rakhine state. It left the population there in sheer poverty. If militancy grows out of that deprivation, it is the Myanmar government that has to take the responsibility for that.

UN investigators and other independent researchers have concluded that citizenship, basic rights, including education, health and movement of freedom, recognising the Muslims there as Rohingya, repatriating them in their original places of homes and returning their properties are the fundamentals for a sustainable repatriation.

Myanmar, however, is only assuring them of providing national verification cards (NVC), which it says, is a pathway to citizenship. It says the refugees would be sheltered in transit camps and eventually taken to their original homes. Rohingyas, however, disbelieve the proposition.

They say accepting NVCs means they are migrants from Bangladesh. Rohingyas also argue that the 124,000 Rohingyas displaced in a communal violence in 2012 are still living in the camps. They too would be put in similar camps if they return to Rakhine under present conditions.

The Rohingya crisis has become a major global issue, which prompted big powers including the US, EU, and Australia, to impose sanctions against several high-ranking army officials. They are also weighing trade sanctions. The International Criminal Court has issued ruling that it can prosecute Myanmar for its “genocidal intent”.

These actions mean Myanmar is being isolated in the global arena. Also, the Association of South East Asian Nations, which maintains the principle of non-interference in domestic affairs, is speaking louder against Myanmar now.

Myanmar now has only one option—accept the demands of the Rohingyas and take them back to their homes where they can live a life without any discrimination.

The ball is now in Myanmar’s court.

Porimol Palma is senior reporter, The Daily Star.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh