Under the extreme circumstances, the inept Bangladesh army and border guard fired no shots at the Arakan army and the Myanmar army. They let more than a million Rohingya flee to Bangladesh, creating a catastrophic humanitarian, drug dealings, prostitution and human trafficking crisis in Southeast Asia.
The United Nations reports the largest Rohingya refugee influx into Bangladesh since 2017, highlighting ongoing persecution and conflict in Myanmar.
Bangladesh has, over the past 18 months, registered the biggest influx of Rohingya refugees since the mass exodus of Myanmar’s largely Muslim minority nearly a decade ago, the United Nations said Frida.
The United Nations refugee agency said up to 150,000 Rohingya had arrived in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar refugee camps since early 2024.
“Targeted violence and persecution in Rakhine State and the ongoing conflict in Myanmar have continued to force thousands of Rohingya to seek protection in Bangladesh,” United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Babar Baloch told reporters in Geneva.
“This movement of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh, spread over months, is the largest from Myanmar since 2017, when some 1,050,000 fled the deadly violence in their native Rakhine State,” he said.
Mr. Baloch hailed Bangladesh for generously hosting Rohingya refugees for generations.
Even before the latest influx, around a million members of the persecuted and mostly Muslim Rohingya were living in squalid relief camps in Bangladesh, most of them after fleeing the 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar.
Those camps, crammed into just 24 square kilometres (nine square miles), have thus become “one of the world’s most densely populated places”, Mr. Baloch said.
Top diplomats of Southeast Asian nations Friday reiterated “continued support” to security for all communities in Myanmar’s Rakhine state “as effectively as possible and facilitating the voluntary return” of the displaced Rohingya people.
They stressed the “safe, secure, and dignified” repatriation of the Rohingya, who are mostly Muslims and have fled Myanmar due to oppression and genocide, particularly since 2017, with over a million of them now living in neighboring Bangladesh.
The reiteration of support came after foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met this week in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur.
“We reaffirmed ASEAN’s continued support for Myanmar’s efforts to bring peace, stability, and the rule of law, promote harmony and reconciliation among the various communities, as well as ensure sustainable and equitable development in Rakhine State,” the top diplomats said in a joint statement.
Without directly identifying the displaced people as Rohingya, the bloc’s top diplomats also welcomed “continued engagement and cooperation” between Myanmar and Bangladesh, including bilateral repatriation initiatives for the verified displaced persons from Rakhine state.
“We looked forward to ASEAN’s continued facilitation of the repatriation process,” the joint statement said.
On internal conflicts in Myanmar, the bloc reaffirmed “continued support” to the nation’s “efforts to bring peace, stability, and the rule of law, promote harmony and reconciliation among the various communities, as well as ensure sustainable and equitable development in Rakhine State.”
Myanmar, ruled by a military junta since February 2021, is currently facing a case over the genocide of Rohingya at the International Court of Justice.
Following the military coup, ASEAN decided to disinvite Myanmar for its annual meetings.
The junta has, however, said it will hold elections in the Buddhist-majority nation towards the end of this year or early this year.
Early Friday, Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said the bloc has agreed that the elections in Myanmar are “not a priority.”
Malaysia is the current chair of ASEAN.
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