While Bangladesh has done a tremendous job of sheltering the Rohingya refugees who have been fleeing the persecution of their own government, the ultimate goal has always been repatriation.
Prompt repatriation is the only sustainable solution on the table, and no amount of stalling from the Myanmar government can change that -- the Rohingya deserve safe and voluntary resettlement back in their homeland, after all. Furthermore, without repatriation, the tumultuous situation concerning Myanmar will continue to deteriorate and threatens to have a spillover effect on the rest of the region.
Given the far reaching effects of such a consequence -- primarily for the Indo-Pacific region -- repatriation has to be the end goal of both local and international stakeholders.
This is an objective that we had to advocate for on our own so far. International partners like the US, the EU, and Japan are increasing their involvement with the Rohingya crisis -- with a US delegation coming to Dhaka with a particular focus on this matter next week -- but they are still mum when it comes to repatriation.
Clearly the onus does not lie solely on our diplomats, who are indeed doing a fine job of advocating repatriation on the global stage, which means the only bottleneck is the international community itself.
But enough is enough.
We need to increase our presence in international bodies such as the UN and drive home the fact that the Rohingya staying in our borders for any longer not only harms Bangladesh but is also quite taxing on the million-plus refugees currently within our borders.
Myanmar cannot be allowed to risk the lives of more than a million of their own citizens while burdening the infrastructure and economy of an entire nation along with it.