Bangladesh’s response to Rohingya crisis sets ‘example’ for world: UK

Bangladesh has set an “example” for the world with its response to the Rohingya crisis, British High Commissioner Alison Blake has said.

The UK is “active” in finding a lasting solution to the crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, Blake told a group of journalists at her residence in Dhaka on Saturday.

Blake also said her government has already announced £30 million to meet the humanitarian needs of vulnerable Rohingyas after the Aug 25 violence that forced nearly 400,000 of them to flee Rakhine and take shelter in Bangladesh.

“We should be open in saying that this is the most extraordinary movement of people. It’s a great challenge for any country. Bangladesh has been amazing.”

“It is part of the story we told back to the people in the UK what is going on here.”

Blake was discussing the ongoing Rohingya crisis issue ahead of the UN General Assembly where the issue would be discussed.

Photo: muhammad mostafigur Rahman

Bangladesh that has been sheltering 400,000 stateless Rohingyas for long opened the border after the Aug 25 crisis. Myanmar denies them citizenship. UN agencies fear the number may reach 1 million by the year-end if the situation in Rakhine remains unchanged.

The UN Security Council, in a rare statement on Myanmar, urged the country to stop the violence.

The European Parliament has also threatened Myanmar with sanctions if it does not respond to global calls for stopping the persecution of Rohingyas. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres branded it as 'ethnic cleansing'.

Blake said: “The response of the government of Bangladesh and Bangladeshi people in taking this huge number of refuges is extraordinary and an example.”

“For many people I speak to it reminds them of 1971. They remembered how they were taken in. Many people know what is like to be a refugee.”

She, however, said there is no “magic wand” to solve the decades-old crisis overnight, but there is a global understanding that this cannot be allowed to continue.

“This understanding is not just to stop violence, it’s to come to a lasting solution,” Blake said, referring to the statements of her government and the UN Security Council where the UK and Sweden tabled the issue.

Quiet diplomacy

The envoy would not speculate on the outcome of the Security Council statement, but said the Security Council “unanimously” sent a “powerful message”.

If people were able to tell a country to stop it and they stopped it, the world would be a very different place, according to Blake.

“There’s patient and quiet diplomacy which is often important for that.”

Blake said there are a number of things in the diplomatic arsenal, but the options are “quite difficult”.

 

The UK was not just active on the humanitarian ground, but as the member of the Security Council and a friend of Bangladesh, they have been clear to say that people responsible for violence which is the armed forces and security forces must stop it.

“This is a crisis Bangladesh dealing with, but it’s not made in Bangladesh,” she said, adding that nobody could understand immediately what is going to unfold.

Blake said the UK was working to find a lasting solution to the crisis. For that, she said, the recommendations of the Kofi Annan-led commission which Myanmar has agreed to must be implemented.

“And cooperation with the fact-finding mission is important because understanding what went wrong and accountability for those responsible is very important for a long-term lasting solution,” Blake said.

Part of the plan is that people who have been driven into Bangladesh should be able to go home with “conditions of safety and with their rights”.

She said in the UN General Assembly, the British Secretary of State Boris Johnson would host meetings on the sidelines on the issue.

Referring to her visit to Cox’s Bazar with other Dhaka-based diplomats, she said those who arrived want to go back home to Myanmar. “But they want to be safe, be protected.”

Jane Edmonson, head of DFID Bangladesh, who was also present with the high commissioner, said there are “huge coordination” challenges to manage all the resources coming for the humanitarian need.

“We are working with the partners on how to improve this and manage that,” she said, adding that they are also preparing for the “worst-case” scenario.

The majority of the funds announced by the UK will be spent to scale up the critical life-saving assistance such as food, shelter, water and sanitation to the population who have already arrived.

In Myanmar, they stand ready to provide life-saving assistance to those affected in Rakhine State. So they called for improvements in access to allow them to reach those in desperate need, Edmonson said.