Research Activities

25 August 2017
Special Report

Rohingya Crisis: Policy Options and Analysis
Aparupa Bhattacherjee

Abstract:Bangladesh has a new crisis to deal with apart from the terrorism and corruption: the Rohingya refugee crisis. The incident that triggered the current influx happened on 25 August 2017, when a group under the banner name of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked several police stations and outposts with barely some weapons and machetes in the Rakhine state of Myanmar. The result was a major crack down by the Tatmadaw (Myanmarese Army) on the local Rohingya population. Atrocities, rape, destruction of properties that included burning of several Rohingya villages by Tatmadaw forced the Rohingya population to cross the border and seek shelter in Bangladesh. This has led Bangladesh to a precarious situation of providing basic human assistance to approximately 600,000 Rohingya refugees arriving since 25 August 2017. The fresh influx of the Rohingyas is not a standalone incident. Bangladesh has (unwillingly) provided refuge to several Rohingyas since 1978, when the first riot broke out in the Rakhine (then Arakan) state in the west of Myanmar. Althoughboth during 1978 and 1992 UN intervention led to repatriation of a significantnumber of Rohingyas back to Myanmar, there are several who stayed back. The total number of Rohingya presently in Bangladesh is unknown as only 32,000 of them are registered with UNHCR and the Bangladesh government. The report is an attempt to answer the following questions: What could Bangladesh do domestically to deal with this problem? What can India and Bangladesh do together to face the crisis? What should be the regional approach?

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BIPSS Special Report