Rohingya repatriation: ICRC yet to get formal request from Myanmar

Myanmar has not yet approached the International Committee of the Red Cross or ICRC to make it part of Rohingya repatriation efforts, the humanitarian agency’s Dhaka chief Ikhtiyar Aslanov says.

Although repatriation is not part of ICRC’s mandate, it provides humanitarian support to complement the political process of any repatriation, he said.

“But ICRC has not yet been formally approached by the government of Myanmar,” Aslanov said on Tuesday, replying to a question at a media briefing in his office.

The question comes as Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali recently said Myanmar wants to include ICRC, not UNHCR, in the Rohingya repatriation process as the two neighbours signed a deal to repatriate refugees from Cox’s Bazar to their homes in Rakhine.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, sought to be part of the process to maintain standards and ensure a voluntary return. Bangladesh has agreed to include them.

But in Myanmar, UNHCR does not have the access to the volatile Rakhine State from where about 700,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh after the Myanmar military cracked down on the Muslim minority in response to militant attacks on security forces on Aug 25.

The United Nations described the operation as the ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas, an allegation Myanmar denies.

Aslanov, the head of the ICRC delegation in Dhaka, said they look at the issues from their own perspectives to carry out humanitarian efforts.

For example, he said, when the Bangladesh government started the process of relocating Myanmar nationals from Bandarban to Kutupalong, they provided them with emergency food packages.

Given the scale of the situation on the ground in Rakhine State, one agency alone cannot respond to the needs on the other side, he said.

“We appeal to the government of Myanmar to allow mandated, professional and skilled humanitarian organisations to help in this process,” he said, adding that humanitarian response is not an answer to the political process.

 “Political issues should be solved between the sides through negotiations, arrangements, agreements and understanding. We as a humanitarian side can complement this political process by responding to the needs, by creating conducive conditions on the ground, by bringing certain services.”

Only political solutions probably will not create a congenial environment, but politically people can decide how people can go back, he said.

“If people on the ground do not have access to education and health and there is destruction, then it becomes difficult,” he said. “One doesn’t go without the other.”

Aslanov commended the agreements signed between the countries, despite differences. In the deals, it was clearly mentioned that the return will have to be voluntary and safe.

Asked whether it is the right time to start the return, he said the right time would be determined by the start of the process.

For the return, certain conditions need to be met. And these conditions are all expressed in the arrangement, he said.

The world’s oldest humanitarian organisation, the ICRC, played a crucial humanitarian role during Bangladesh's War of Independence in 1971.

After five years of operation since independence, the ICRC shut its Dhaka office in 1975 but re-opened it in 2006 as it found it necessary mainly to train Bangladesh peacekeepers who serve in UN missions.

Over the years, it has expanded its activities, and is focused on three directions: one of them is prevention for which it works with the foreign affairs, home affairs and defence ministries for promoting an international humanitarian law.

The second part of its work is protection for which it works closely with the prison authorities.

The third part is the humanitarian response under which it works in the Chittagong Hill Tracts to support livelihood projects for the poor. It provides grants and links them with the local authorities so that they can start working to earn a living.

They also work in Cox’s Bazar under the humanitarian response and support the Myanmar nationals who have taken shelter for decades.

Together with the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, it has been working on a healthcare project in Cox’s Bazar since 2014.

After the latest crisis, according to ICRC’s Communication Delegate Misada Saif, the organisation has provided 79,420 people, as of Jan 18, with food and non-food items, 41,519 received mobile health services, 42,700 benefitted from water, sanitation and hygiene projects, and 8,295 displaced family members were able to contact their families.