Editorial
The Rohingya Residue
The abrupt stalemate in the process of Rohingya repatriation to Myanmar caused by a resistive flare-up in the refugee camps has prompted some sort of a review of our arrangements in this behalf. The preparations apparently fell short of taking the UNHCR people along which is why they are purportedly urging the Bangladesh authorities, now to ensure 'voluntary repatriation.' Technically, the Refugee and Repatriation Commissioner AQM Qamrul Huda may have followed the procedure of sending the local UNHCR a list of would-be returnees, but seemingly there has been some communication gap between the two offices down the road. But it is ironical that we are having to undergo a sensitivity test at the fag end of the send-off process involving the last batch of 21 thousand plus refugees. Most of the quarter of a million Rohingyas who had fled Burmese persecution and taken refuge in our territory have already gone back to their hearths and homes in Myanmar. Nearly all of this happened under the benign supervision of the UNHCR. As the UN-mandated authority, its concerns over voluntary return of the refugees and their safe and secure rehabilitation at the place of destination are understandable. So far as the government of Bangladesh goes on the question of approach, the state minister for foreign affairs Abul Hassan has reminded all concerned in an interview with the BBC the other day that when the incumbent Prime Minister was the leader of the opposition she was the one to have demanded supervision of the repatriation process by the UNHCR. She, in fact, had met the UNHCR chief Ogata at that time labouring this point. Bangladesh's compulsion in the present case stemmed from the fact that Myanmar authorities wanted the repatriation process to be completed by August 15. The meeting such as the one that was held in Cox's Bazar on Friday with our representative Qamrul Huda, UNHCR mission chief in Bangladesh and UNHCR mission chief in Myanmar attending does reflect a concerted sense of urgency to get the repatriation process over with. We take heart from this.
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