DHAKA – Rohingya resettlement from Bangladesh, mainly to the United States and Canada, has increased this year but more than 1 million refugees remain while Myanmar remains too unstable for large-scale returns.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has arranged for 355 Rohingya to be resettled in the US while 307 others are having applications verified, according to Bangladesh’s home ministry.
Canada received 131 Rohingya and 148 others are being verified.
Australia received 48 while 62 others traveled to the Netherlands, Italy, Argentina, Sweden, the UK, Ireland, Germany and Japan.
In August 2022, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the resettlement process and US migration chief Julieta Noyes visited Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar in December last year.
Bangladesh home minister Asaduzzaman Khan told the media that he met US ambassador Peter Haas last month to speed up the verification process.
Bangladesh has hosted over 1.1 million Rohingya from Myanmar since the 2017 military crackdown in Rakhine State.
The resettlement process has been stepped up since the assassination of Rohingya leader Mohib Ullah in the Kutupalang camp in September 2021. His family and associates were resettled in Canada.
Jon Danilowicz, a former US diplomat who served in Bangladesh, said: “Ironically, over the years the US constantly advocated for larger numbers of third-country Rohingya settlements. Bangladesh regularly opposed these efforts, fearing they would be a magnet for more refugee arrivals and be politically unpopular locally.”
Bangladesh’s government pushes for repatriation to Myanmar rather than third-country resettlement but the outbreak of fresh violence between the Arakan Army and Myanmar’s junta on November 13 has scuppered the process.
Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner Mohammed Mizanur Rahman told The Irrawaddy: “The clashes will definitely hamper the repatriation process. Other ethnic groups are already being affected by these clashes.
Numerous Rohingya continue to risk perilous boat journeys to Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia and over the last 10 days, the Bangladeshi authorities have apprehended over 200 Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar allegedly being trafficked to Malaysia by boat.
Gwyn Lewis, the UN coordinator in Bangladesh, told The Irrawaddy: “A more fast-moving process would be very helpful to take full advantage of the possibility of repatriation.”
