Stop pushing back refugees, rights group tells Dhaka

New York-based group Human Rights Watch has again urged Bangladesh to stop pushing Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar ‘forcibly’.

In a statement, the global rights group yesterday said at least 18 Rohingya asylum seekers, including three young children, are in immediate danger of being forcibly returned to Myanmar on World Refugee Day, June 20.

It urged Bangladesh to provide Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar humanitarian assistance and at least temporary refuge until it is safe for them to return home.

“Bangladesh is putting the lives of those fleeing violence – including young children – at risk by sending them back to Myanmar,” said Bill Frelick, refugees director at Human Rights Watch.

“It is tragically ironic that Bangladesh has closed its border and is making forced returns on World Refugee Day. This is a reminder that the fundamental principles of refugee protection still need to be respected,” said Frelick. The statement said on June 18, Human Rights Watch witnessed the Bangladeshi coast guard push nine boats reportedly holding more than 140 Rohingyas back to Myanmar waters from the jetty in the port town of Shah Porir Dweep.

Push-backs on June 19 were postponed because of inclement weather, it said, adding Bangladeshi border guards and police have also arrested and deported an unknown number of Rohingyas who have recently entered Bangladesh.

The Bangladeshi authorities insist on pushing back asylum seekers seeking sanctuary across the border in violation of international law, the statement said.

Bangladesh should abide by its obligations under international law not to return Rohingyas fleeing violence in Myanmar, Human Rights Watch said.

“The Bangladesh government shouldn’t be pushing boats back at all, but it’s even more appalling that authorities are willing to send children back into territory where bloodshed continues,” said Frelick.

“The government should provide those fleeing Burma (Myanmar) temporary refuge and open its doors to humanitarian aid from abroad.”

While Bangladesh is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, it is a party to other treaties – including the Convention against Torture, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child – that provide protections to refugees and asylum seekers, HRW argued.

Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship. Rohingya have been living in Myanmar for centuries. In the 1990s, about 250,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh in the face of alleged persecution by the military junta.

Myanmar took back most of them, leaving some 25,000 in two official camps run by the government and the United Nations in Cox’s Bazar district.

Bangladesh has been unsuccessfully negotiating with Myanamar for years to send them back. But, in the meantime, tens of thousands of others have entered Bangladesh illegally in recent years.

(2012-06-20/gulf-times)