On Wednesday, Muhammad Yunus, the interim chief of Bangladesh’s government, urgently called for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees and voiced serious concerns about worsening security in the border areas, citing “sporadic fighting and criminal activities.”

Speaking at a high-level discussion during the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York, Yunus noted that although Bangladeshi law enforcement has maintained peace in the refugee camps, the “crisis in Rakhine State merits careful revisit.”

“We are concerned over the deteriorating security situation and instability in the bordering region, including sporadic group fighting and criminal activities. Our law enforcement agencies and people, together with the international community, have so far been able to maintain peace and stability in the camps. So this crisis in Rakhine State merits careful revisit”

– Muhammad Yunus

Yunus underscored the major difficulties Bangladesh is encountering due to hosting over 1.2 million displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar. He noted that although Bangladesh has shown compassion in accommodating the Rohingyas, there are mammoth associated social, economic, and environmental costs. Yunus stated that “Bangladesh has reached its limits” and that repatriation is the only viable long-term solution to the crisis.

“Despite hosting the Rohingyas with great empathy, a densely populated Bangladesh has been incurring so much in terms of social-economic-environmental costs. These culminate in a series of traditional and non-traditional security risks for us. Much of our own development gains are at stake. Clearly, Bangladesh has reached its limits. Therefore, as much as Bangladesh engages in humanitarian aspects or ensuring justice, repatriation of the Rohingyas remains the only sustainable solution to the protracted crisis,” Yunus said.

Yunus stated that multiple resolutions from the UN General Assembly, Human Rights Council, and Security Council have called for creating conditions that allow the Rohingyas to return home with dignity, safety, and sustainability. However, he lamented that due to the unresolved root causes of the crisis in Myanmar over the past seven years, not a single Rohingya has been able to return.

Yunus called on global and regional authorities, such as the United Nations, ASEAN, and other influential entities, to tackle the underlying issues of the Rohingya crisis. He emphasized the need to create an inclusive society in Myanmar, where all ethnic groups can live together harmoniously. “We call on international and regional actors to work together, with the UN Special Envoy playing a central role in coordinating these efforts,” he added.

Following this, Yunus also presented three key proposals to address the situation, where he called for an all-stakeholders conference on the Rohingya crisis to review the situation and suggest innovative solutions.

He also stated that the Joint Response Plan, managed by the UN and Bangladesh, to enliven in order to address the sliding funding situation for humanitarian aid.

The 2021 Joint Response Plan aims to assist nearly 1.4 million people, including 884,000 Rohingya refugees and 472,000 Bangladeshis in Cox’s Bazar, with a budget of US$943 million. UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized the need to address the root causes of discrimination and violence in Myanmar to improve the dire conditions faced by nearly one million Rohingya refugees.

Yunus concluded by reiterating Bangladesh’s dedication to working with all parties involved to protect the rights and dignity of the Rohingya people, highlighting the crucial need for a political solution to the crisis.

Since the early 1990s, over a million Rohingya refugees have fled violence in Myanmar, with a significant surge in 2017 when thousands crossed into Bangladesh daily. Most refugees, primarily women and children, arrived exhausted, hungry, and sick. The Kutupalong refugee settlement has since become the world’s largest, housing over 600,000 people in just 13 square kilometers, straining infrastructure and services.

The intensification of Myanmar’s recent civil war involves systematic atrocities such as attacks on civilians, torture, and sexual violence, according to a recent UN report. Since the military coup on February 1, 2021, over 5,350 civilians have been killed, and more than 3.3 million people displaced. Over half the population now lives below the poverty line, primarily due to violence by the national armed forces. The situation is particularly dire in Rakhine State, where a brutal military crackdown in 2017 forced nearly 750,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.

“The Most Persecuted Minority in the World”

The United Nations has described the Rohingya as “the most persecuted minority in the world.”

Rohingya Muslims represent the largest percentage of Muslims in Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist state, with the majority residing in Rakhine State. Despite their long-standing presence, Myanmar views them as “illegal immigrants” from Bangladesh.

Since the 1970s, significant numbers of Rohingya have migrated across the region. They have their own language and culture and claim descent from Arab traders and other groups who have lived in the region for generations. However, the Myanmar government denies them citizenship and excluded them from the 2014 census, refusing to recognize them as a distinct people.

A report by UN investigators in August 2018 accused Myanmar’s military of committing mass killings and rapes with “genocidal intent.” Nobel Peace laureate and former Prime Minister of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, denied these allegations.

The massive influx of refugees to Bangladesh in 2017 added to the hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas who had fled Myanmar in previous years. Kutupalong, the largest refugee settlement in the world according to UNHCR, now houses more than 600,000 refugees.

In March 2019, Bangladesh announced it would no longer accept Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar, further complicating the humanitarian crisis. The Rohingyas continue to face significant challenges, with no clear resolution in sight.

The Rohingya also faces prejudicial sentiments from India. Recently, BJP leaders in Jharkhand had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Jharkhand Assembly for an investigation into the “infiltration”.

The plea filed with the HC made various claims accusing the Rohingyas and other muslim migrants of infiltrating the Adivasi community to gain property and influence, and of changing the regions demographic. The PIL cited data from the Office of the Registrar General of India to claim that the proportion of Scheduled Tribes in Santhal Pargana’s population was 44.67% in 1951 and fell to 28.11% in 2011, primarily due to the migration.

The plea also claimed that the immigrants from Bangladesh were allegedly marrying into Adivasi communities to aquire land and influence. This belief was heavily perpetrated by Union Home Minister, BJP’s Amit Shah, who labelled the practice, “love jihad”.