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Indonesia, Bangladesh reaffirm commitment to Rohingya refugees
Indonesia and Bangladesh have pledged to refocus their efforts to address the Rohingya refugee crisis, which has taken a back seat to pandemic handling and the Myanmar coup crisis.
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Rohingya refugees look on in the compounds of a mosque following their arrival by boat in Bireuen, Aceh province on March 6. (AFP/Amanda Jufrian)
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ndonesia and Bangladesh reaffirmed their commitment to assisting displaced Rohingya refugees this week in a joint statement commemorating 50 years of diplomatic relations, while acknowledging the situation was “more challenging” to overcome amid the Myanmar coup crisis.
The two sides met when Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi hosted her Bangladeshi counterpart AK Abdul Momen at the Pancasila Building in Central Jakarta on Monday.
As host to hundreds of Rohingya refugees – a Muslim minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar – Indonesia has sought to engage its ASEAN neighbor and Bangladesh.
Their plight, which has fueled Southeast Asia’s biggest refugee crisis in decades, has taken a back seat since the devastating onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and later a putsch that has placed Myanmar under military rule.
“On the Rohingya, we acknowledge that this long overdue [issue] still requires our utmost attention,” Retno said in her remarks in the joint press statement. “Indonesia is committed to continuing our assistance to [the] Rohingya people and to help the Myanmar people as well.”
Bangladesh, which shares its southeastern border with Myanmar, is host to over 1 million Rohingya refugees, mostly living in the camps of Cox’s Bazar according to data from Human Rights Watch. Meanwhile, Indonesia is a transit country to 902 Rohingya refugees recorded as of June, the United Nations Refugees Agency’s (UNHCR) office in Indonesia told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Neither Indonesia nor Bangladesh is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 protocol, making them free of any obligation to take in or provide shelter for refugees. In both states, refugees have described living as riddled with enormous challenges due to the absence of civil rights, such as warrants for employment or formal education.
Though Retno verbalized her continued support, she did not reveal any details on Indonesia’s plans to aid the displaced population going forward.
Read also: Rohingya refugees in quarantine in Aceh after rescue
A ministry spokesperson was not immediately available for comments on the details of Indonesia’s Rohingya plans.
Meanwhile, Bangladeshi Minister Abdul Momen noted that the issue must be solved multilaterally as Myanmar was a member of ASEAN. He also added that he counts on Retno’s “dynamic [leadership]” to help navigate a “peaceful and sustainable resolution”, particularly in the repatriation of the displaced population.
In recent years, the Bangladeshi government has coaxed its Rohingya refugees to start and participate in a “Going Home” campaign as the nation struggles to accommodate the ever-increasing number of asylum seekers.
“We are providing all help to them, but they all want to go back to their country of origin, which is Myanmar – [which] we have been supportive of for years,” he said.
“Myanmar agreed to take them back [and] create an environment conducive for their safe and dignified return. Unfortunately, no one has gone over the last five years.”
Deemed stateless in their own country, the Rohingya have often fallen victim to human trafficking rings operating in and around the region. Even those who are brought into Indonesia often find themselves back in the trafficking circuit, unable to bear waiting out their resettlement limbo.
At the start of the year, the Indonesian government let dozens of stranded Rohingyas come ashore in Aceh after protests over plans to push them into Malaysian waters.
Besides the refugee issue, the two ministers said they discussed bilateral cooperation on terrorism, food and energy and exchange programs.
