The Rohingya crisis: the burden Bangladesh carries, the world's test of conscience

DHAKA

While in Bangladesh, we also took part in a roundtable meeting addressing the Rohingya crisis, one of the country's most important issues, which has not left its agenda for about ten years. The meeting, organized by the Centre for Civilizational Dialogue and BIIT Trust (Bangladesh Institute of Islamic Thought), was titled: "Navigating the Rohingya Crisis: Is Return a Distant Dream?"

Academics, researchers, human rights defenders, media representatives, former diplomats and heads of think tanks took part in the meeting. The common point of the discussions was that the Rohingya issue has long since ceased to be a bilateral problem that can be solved only between Bangladesh and Myanmar. This matter is a great humanitarian issue in which international law, human rights, regional security and, above all, the world's conscience are being tested.

TODAY ABOUT 1.1 MILLION ROHINGYA REFUGEES LIVE IN BANGLADESH

The great majority of them are in the camps in Cox's Bazar, and some are on the island of Bhasan Char. These camps, which have turned into one of the world's largest refugee settlements, were initially established as temporary shelter areas. But as years passed, the temporary began to become permanent, and the state of emergency began to turn into everyday life.

There are children born in the camps. There are young people who have never seen Myanmar. There is a generation growing up stateless, futureless and in uncertainty.

The most dangerous stage of a refugee crisis is not merely people's displacement. The real danger is that this displacement becomes normalized over time. After a while the world gets used to camps, figures and aid appeals. The images that shook consciences in the first days turn into ordinary news material. The international agenda shifts to other crises, and a forgotten people is left behind.

This is exactly the tragedy the Rohingya are living through.

This Muslim community living in Myanmar's Arakan region was subjected to systematic discrimination for many years. Their citizenship rights were taken away. Their freedom of travel was restricted. Their property rights were usurped. Their villages were burned. People were killed, and women and children became the targets of grave violations. In particular, the great wave of violence in 2017 forced hundreds of thousands of people to take refuge in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh, despite its own economic and demographic problems, opened its doors to these people. This was not merely a political decision but an example of great moral responsibility. History will remember Bangladesh as the country that did not turn its back on an oppressed people while most of the world was content with expressing sorrow from afar.

But here a very clear reality must also be acknowledged: this burden that Bangladesh carries alone is no longer sustainable.

Social, economic and environmental pressures are increasing in the areas where the camps are located. Sharing resources between the local population and the refugees is becoming difficult. Meeting education, health, food and shelter needs depends on international aid. The decline in aid funds makes life in the camps more fragile. Prolonged uncertainty also feeds human trafficking, drug networks, illegal migration routes and other security problems.

Therefore it is not enough to appreciate Bangladesh's humanitarian burden; this burden must be genuinely shared at the international level.

FROM THE HASINA ERA TO THE NEW ADMINISTRATION

The new political atmosphere that formed in Bangladesh after the July Revolution is also creating new expectations regarding the approach to the Rohingya issue.

Although the Sheikh Hasina administration tried to keep the Rohingya crisis on the international agenda, over time an approach centered on security, burden and control was seen to prevail. The prolongation of the crisis, the decline of international support and the steady growth of the camp population led the government to harsher and administrative measures.

The new administration, on the other hand, is expected to handle the matter with a more humane, more transparent and more rights-based understanding. An approach that sees the Rohingya merely as a security problem or an economic burden cannot produce a solution. They are, first and foremost, people whose rights have been taken away and who have been forcibly torn from their country.

However, the change of administration in Bangladesh does not remove the real source of the problem. Because the lasting solution lies not in Bangladesh but in Myanmar.

RETURN IS NOT MERELY CROSSING THE BORDER

The basic question of the meeting was: is return really a distant dream?

Most of the Rohingya want to return to their own country. But the real matter is under what conditions the return will take place. Merely moving people to the other side of the border is not return.

Real return means regaining security, citizenship, legal status, the right to property and human dignity.

Today in Myanmar none of these conditions fully exists. The Rohingya are still not recognized as citizens. Fighting continues in the Rakhine region. Security guarantees are uncertain. Besides the Myanmar army, there are also allegations of violations against the Rohingya by other armed actors gaining strength in the region.

A return carried out under these conditions may lead to people facing violence and exile once again.

TÜRKİYE'S CONSISTENT SUPPORT FROM THE OUTSET

Türkiye's stance on the Rohingya issue must be especially mentioned. From the very beginning Türkiye approached this crisis not only with diplomatic statements but with practical and continuous solidarity.

The visit of President Erdoğan's wife Emine Erdoğan to the Cox's Bazar camps in 2017 was one of the strongest symbolic steps that brought the Rohingya tragedy to the attention of international public opinion at a time when most of the world remained silent. That visit showed that Türkiye saw the matter not as the humanitarian drama of a distant geography but as a matter of conscience to be directly embraced.

The Turkish Red Crescent, AFAD, the Turkish Diyanet Foundation, IHH and many other civil society organizations have for years been carrying out food, health, shelter, education and orphan support work in the region. Türkiye's support is not a temporary aid activity visible only in moments of crisis but a steady solidarity continuing at the level of state and society.

The people we met in Bangladesh also particularly remember and appreciate this interest from Türkiye.

Türkiye's Syria experience also offers the whole world important lessons in this regard. When Türkiye opened its doors to millions of Syrians, it bore the heavy economic, political and social costs of doing so. This policy was criticized for years at home and abroad. But today we see that assuming humanitarian responsibility and strategic gain are not opposites.

The responsibility Bangladesh has assumed toward the Rohingya should be assessed in the same way. This sacrifice cannot be measured only by today's costs. History looks, in moments of crisis, not at the accounts of the powerful but at the stance of those who stood by the oppressed.

WHAT SHOULD THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY DO?

Today more than aid packages is needed.

First, effective diplomatic pressure should be exerted on Myanmar regarding citizenship, security and the restoration of rights.

Second, the economic and social burden Bangladesh carries should be eased through a genuine international burden-sharing mechanism.

Third, a sustainable diplomatic coordination should be established among the United Nations, ASEAN, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Türkiye and other influential countries.

Fourth, the Rohingya issue must not be allowed to drop off the international agenda. Because forgotten crises are not solved; they only deepen.

The Rohingya problem is a test of the world's capacity to produce justice.