SFU David Lam Centre

The Burden of Housing Refugees: A Perspective from Rohingya Hosting Chittagong

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Nearly one million Rohingyas from Myanmar’s Rakhine have become refugees in Bangladesh’s Chittagong. This refugee exodus derives from Myanmar’s domestic crisis with multiple dimensions: political power struggle, economic deprivation and communal conflict. Only the latter dimension (inter-ethnic and inter-religious tension) has dominated the narrative of the Rohingya exodus. This imbalanced narrative has far reaching consequences on the refugee hosting Chittagong region. It has challenged and continue to challenge the precarious ethno-diversity and religious harmony in the wider Chittagong area. This presentation warns that the delay in resolving the present Rohingya crisis may trigger another refugee-generating crisis by victimizing the non-Bengali and Buddhist minority living in Chittagong. This observation, made after a month long visit to Rohingya refugee hosting Chittagong, highlights the urgent need for international intervention so that the Rohingya refugees are repatriated in timely fashion to stop another humanitarian crisis in the region.

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