Plight of Rohingya refugees
Photo: AFP
We are very saddened by the plight of the Rohingya refugees who are currently fleeing for their lives from Myanmar and seeking refuge in Bangladesh as documented by local and world media. In this context, we are horrified that our country Bangladesh is continuing her policy of forcibly returning refugee boats in distress to the sea. This is morally repugnant at many levels: 1. It is almost certainly against international humanitarian law to forcibly push out distressed refugee boats out to sea, especially when there is clearly apparent danger of the boat not having enough supplies for the survival of the refugees or enough fuel to make it to a safe landing destination. 2. Two recent international incidents come to mind where the UN or other international bodies have taken up criminal investigations due to such disregard of refugee well-being. The first involved Rohingya refugees too who were towed out to sea by the Thai Coast Guard without fuel and left to perish. The second involved a British naval helicopter that ignored the distress of a refugee boat from Libya during the recently ended civil war there -- many refugees on that boat died of thirst and starvation. We as Bangladeshis certainly don't want to follow in these footsteps and be investigated for violations of international law leading to deaths of refugees. 3. From a purely human angle, we as Bangladeshis who have suffered great atrocities at the hands of war criminals during our own liberation struggle cannot ignore the desperate pleas for help from neighbours who are brutalised in their own homeland (in this case Myanmar). To do so would be inhuman and cruel and against the very foundation of our national character. 4. Last, we urge the government of Bangladesh to immediately suspend the policy of "indiscriminate refugee push back" and urgently consider replacing it with a humane policy of saving the lives of refugees and working to resettle them in their homelands only when there are reasonable conditions of safety for them to live there. We have earned a worldwide reputation as UN peacekeepers. Let us not squander it with callous disregard for human life.
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