Bangladesh to formulate national strategy for Rohingya refugees

Government officials held a meeting to formulate a new national strategy for supporting the influx of undocumented Rohingya people who are entering Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar. The meeting of the "National Taskforce on Implementation of National Strategy on Myanmar Refugees and Undocumented Myanmar Nationals" was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka on Monday. Attendees included representatives from the Prime Minister’s Office, Finance Division, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, armed forces, Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, and Chittagong Hill Tracts Division. Officials concerned said the government has a huge backlog of work to do in regard to the undocumented Myanmar nationals, as the Rohingya census in six districts has yet to be completed. Bangladesh has already made plans to settle the refugees in a purpose-built camp to be set up on 15,000 acres of land in Bhasan Char of Noakhali at a cost of Tk2,000 crore, the officials added. They also said the government will reinforce its diplomatic manoeuvres to prevent the possible use of veto power by Russia and China on the Rohingya issue in the United Nations Security Council. About the impact of the Rohingya influx on Bangladesh’s economy, an official of the Ministry of Finance who attended the upcoming meeting said there might be a very little impact on the national budget. “Rehabilitation and management of the refugees would cost no more than Tk800 crore,” he told the Dhaka Tribune. However, this claim was disputed by Dr Shamsul Alam, member of General Economics Division of the Planning Commission, who said it was “very likely” that there will be some impact on the national budget due to the crisis. “We are facing a food shortage because of frequent floods in recent months. In such circumstances, it is difficult for us to feed over a million Rohingya people who have taken shelter here,” he said. “The UN and other development organisations will not always be providing food for them.” Cox's Bazar Assistant Deputy Commissioner and Executive Magistrate AKM Lutfor Rahman is involved in the biometric registration of the refugees and told the Dhaka Tribune that the process is moving quite slowly due to a lack of logistical support and personnel. “Additional manpower and logistical support are required to expedite the process. We hope we would be provided with the support by the next week,” he said. Lutfor said a large number of Rohingya people are not aware of the biometric registration process and do not even understand why the government is registering them. “We are making them understand that the government registers them so that they can easily be identified and to make sure all of them are getting facilities from Bangladesh and International Organization for Migration,” he said. “At the beginning, we had written ‘Myanmar national’ as their identity in the registration cards (but) we are now writing ‘Myanmar Rohingya’ following their objections, because they said they feel more comfortable with it.” Over half a million Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar since August 24, after ethnic conflicts in Rakhine sparked the most rapid human exodus since the Rwandan genocide in 1994. But only around 32,284 refugees had been registered by Friday. They add to the estimated 400,000 Rohingya who were already taking shelter in Bangladesh.