Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, is set to pay a four-day visit in response to Bangladesh’s Chief Advisors invitation, which will be from 13 March to 16 March. This will be his second visit in his second tenure as well. Last time in July 2018 he came to Bangladesh with five prominent personalities regarding the hot issues of the Rohingya crisis. After a long time, this has utterly changed the whole situation rather than the fate of the Rohingya who were forcefully displaced from their territory in the Rakhine state of Myanmar. So, this visit of the UN Secretary-General is going to be marked as a significant one either for Bangladesh or Rohingya refugees.
By Md. Al-Amin
From Bangladesh’s point of view, it’s now unbearable to continue above one million Rohingyas. In the middle of 2017, an influx of Rohingya were forcefully persecuted and bound to flee their homeland to enter Bangladesh. From a humanitarian perspective, the Hasina government allows them to join. But, later, about one million Rohingya refugees become a burden for the countries. The lack of International communities concentration, lack of international media coverage, Stakeholders’ conflicts of interest, and several new issues arriving in world politics are the key obstacles behind the protracted Rohingya refugee repartition. Even the assistance from the world community decreased year after year.
The World Food Program (WFP) has cut the monthly food aid for the Rohingyas in Bangladesh from $12.50 to $6 per person, beginning in April risks bringing hunger to Cox’s Bazar in Rohingya camps. Consequently, the Rohingya people get involved with human trafficking, drug dealings, snitches, robbery, and killings which create an unhealthy situation for the local people of Bangladesh. Apart from the above, the Military coup in Myanmar in February 2021 changed the whole repatriation process which was supposed to be started in 2018. However, none of the stakeholders had taken any initiatives, rather China tried to start the repatriation process but did not see the sun of the light.
At present, the situation in Bangladesh and the livelihood of Rohingya refugees have become worse than before. Moreover, after being ousted from the Sheikh Hasina regime, Nobel Laureate Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus was elected as a chief adviser of Bangladesh. In his first policy speech, he noted, “We need the sustained efforts of the international community for Rohingya humanitarian operations and their eventual repatriation to their homeland, Myanmar with safety, dignity, and full rights and we want to support them in all respects.”
Eventually, on the 7th of February through a special envoy, Dr. Muhammad Yunus sent his invitation to the Secretary-General of the United Nations to come and see what are the circumstances of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. In response, on the 25th of February Secretary-General Mr. Guterres sent a letter to the Bangladeshi interim government that he would come on the 14th of March. In his letter, he mentioned that he had already sent a special envoy to Myanmar to find a political solution and even urged regional actors like ASEAN to be involved along with all stakeholders to find possible political solutions to repatriate Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.
Moreover, in last year’s General Assembly meetings of the United Nations, Dr. Yunus presented three proposals to solve the Rohingya refugee crisis. Number one is that the UN Secretary-General should convene an all-stakeholders conference on the Rohingya crisis as soon as possible. The second one is to Create a Joint Response Plan which will be managed jointly by Bangladesh and the UN System. The last one is that the international community should seriously support the Justice and accountability mechanism to address genocidal crimes committed against the Rohingya community.
Through this crucial visit of Mr. Guterres, Bangladesh needs to understand and see the real picture of the Rohingya crisis and how Bangladesh has carried this long-pending burden throughout the years. He needs to be assured of a clear framework on how all the stakeholders will work on it and when will be the possible timeframe to repatriate Rohingya refugees. Along with that before starting the repatriation process, humanitarian assistance needs to be increased. Precisely, the Rohingya Refugee crisis is not only a burden for Bangladesh but also the whole South Asia. Certainly, the International Community along with regional stakeholders needs to step up to resolve this protracted issue.
Noteworthy, Bangladesh has been the key provider of peacekeepers of so many peacekeeping missions all over the world since 1988. At present 572 peacekeepers also work on running eleven missions across the world that are an eye-soothing matter for Bangladesh. Moreover, Bangladesh has earned about 28000 crore taka from 1988 to 2023 which is one of the key sources to enrich our foreign reserve. However, the recent internal political enigma of Bangladesh creates a decreasing chance of adopting fewer peacekeepers shortly. So, Bangladesh needs to be assured by the Secretary-General that nothing would happen regarding our troops’ facilities on a mission.
Bangladesh had some exemplary important solutions over convincing issues like the water sharing treaty, Chattogram hill tracts pact, and particularly victory over the Bay of Bengal region against India and Myanmar. So, Bangladesh can urge him to find a solution to disputed river water sharing against India, particularly Teesta’s water-sharing disputes. Even trying to understand him as a lower riparian country, Bangladesh has the all right to get an equal amount of water, not getting water about two crore people are affected directly. Besides, Bangladesh is known as one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. So, under the United Nations Green Climate Fund (GCF) Bangladesh should get a share of what is allotted to them which needs to be addressed as well. That will be another big expectation from him.
Finally, as the Chair of the world’s best platform, he can make goodwill for any country. So, it’s not childish to notify him about those issues that have firm importance for Bangladesh. However, Bangladesh expects nothing but solutions for Rohingya refugees as soon as possible.
Md. Al-Amin is an educator. He completed his post-graduation from the Department of International Relations at Rajshahi University. His research interests are Diplomacy, Foreign policy, Border conflicts, and Security issues.
