Rohingya crisis may get deeper for Bangladesh, India in coming days: Donald Lu

The US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia says he now spends a lot of time thinking about the refugee crisis, which does not appear to be getting better

Donald Lu, the US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, has flagged the security risks from the Rohingya refugee crisis for Bangladesh and India amid the ongoing conflict between the Myanmar military and rebel groups.

In a discussion organised by the US Institute for Peace to mark the second anniversary of the country’s Indo-Pacific Strategy on Saturday, the host mentioned “historic border conflict” between India and China and India’s “deep-seated conflict with Pakistan.

“But the one I actually spend a lot of time on is thinking about Bangladesh and the Rohingya refugees who were there, and the effects of instability in Burma and what it means for the region,” Lu said.

Pointing to Peter Haas, the US Ambassador to Bangladesh who was present in the discussion, Lu said: “We spend a lot of time working with Bangladesh to try to be supportive of the generosity Bangladesh has shown to over a million people who have been living now in Bangladesh for years.”

He said he saw the tremendous generosity and the willingness of the international community during his visit to the camp.

“We are working together to find a solution to house these refugees until it's safe enough to go back.

“The situation there does not appear to be getting better and what worries me is that this refugee crisis, the security problems that it's creating for Bangladesh and potentially for India as well, could get deeper in the coming days.

“I think it's something we all have to watch out for and we have to be enabling our partners in the region, in this case, Bangladesh and India, to be able to cope with those stresses without it boiling over into instability in their countries as well.”