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The forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals (FDMN) issue - ways forward 

Published : Friday, 20 September, 2024 at 12:00 AM  Count : 470
Tasnia Tasnim Hossain
The Rohingyas are an ethnic Muslim minority from Rakhine in Myanmar. Approximately 3.5 million Rohingyas are dispersed worldwide. Before August 2017, the majority of the Rohingyas in Myanmar resided in Rakhine State, where they accounted for nearly a third of the population. Ethnically, linguistically, and religiously, they differ from Myanmar's dominant Buddhist populace. Denied citizenship, most members of the group are left without legal documentation, effectively rendering them stateless.

The latest Rohingya exodus began in August 2017, when clashes broke out in Rakhine after a militant group known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), led by Ataullah Abu Ammar Jununi, claimed responsibility for attacks on several police and army posts. The junta declared the outfit a terrorist organization and retaliated with a brutal crackdown, devastating hundreds of Rohingya villages and forcing nearly a million to flee.

Rohingyas seeking refuge at Cox's Bazar as FDMNs in Bangladesh are in a country with scarce resources. They are sheltered in camps covering an estimated 8,000 acres of land. These FDMNs joined around 300,000 people already in Bangladesh from previous waves of displacement.

In a new development, the Arakan Army (AA), a largely non-Rohingya rebel group fighting for an autonomous Rakhine state, launched a series of offensives under Operation-1027 last October against the Myanmar junta, coordinating with other ethnic armed groups. The AA is considered a staunch anti-Rohingya entity, and its recent actions have specifically targeted indigenous Rohingyas, resulting in significant fatalities and forcing around 10,000 new FDMNs to seek refuge in Bangladesh. Interestingly, a leading Rohingya rebel group, the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), allegedly reached an "understanding" with the junta military not to attack each other and to fight their common enemy, the AA.

Bangladesh has long surpassed its capacity to support the FDMNs and cannot continue doing so indefinitely. Despite being a struggling Global South nation aspiring for development, it has borne the brunt of the influx of over a million FDMNs. Local populations are increasingly growing impatient due to unlawful activities by FDMNs, shrinking job opportunities, and the enormous negative economic, ecological, cultural, and security issues resulting from their prolonged presence. Currently, a grim and tense situation persists in coastal Cox's Bazar, the southernmost district of Bangladesh. Initially welcoming them with open arms, Bangladesh is increasingly facing a growing unsustainable situation due to the FDMNs' prolonged presence.

All these issues stem from the reckless violence of the Myanmar junta, the renewed brutality of the Rakhine AA, and a prolonged global indecision in effectively resolving the issue through the fast repatriation of the FDMNs in Myanmar, ensuring their long-overdue citizenship and basic rights. As a rough comparison, the total refugees coming from North Africa, Syria, Afghanistan, etc., hosted by all of Europe (with a landmass of 10.53 million km² and a GDP of $24 trillion) amounted to 12.4 million by 2022, with a large proportion accommodated by Turkey (3.6 million) alone. In contrast, the number of FDMNs hosted by Bangladesh (with a meager GDP of $459 billion and a small landmass of only 147,570 square kilometers) is around 1.6 million (including unregistered individuals), with an annual growth rate of newborn FDMN babies at 30,438 (according to UNHCR Fact Sheet Data).


The only effective solution to the crisis remains the repatriation of the FDMNs to Rakhine before they are ethnically cleansed or completely evicted due to the ongoing war. Numerous such efforts have been repeatedly vetoed by a Sino-Russian unity in the UN due to respective strategic and economic interests. Even in June 2023, Bangladesh was pressured to suspend a pilot repatriation project for FDMNs to Myanmar, where they were allegedly facing risks posed by the junta. Interestingly, instead of the world body effectively pressuring the junta to take back their own nationals, poor Bangladesh, hosting them, was pressured to halt their repatriation. In a contradictory yet interesting scenario, while the International Labour Organisation rightfully proposed a monthly wage increase of $208 (later settled at $113 or 12,500 BDT) for Bangladeshi garment workers, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) allocation for each FDMN person was reduced from $12 to just $8 (BDT 840) for the entire month. The additional expenditure has to be borne by Bangladesh.

Potential options available for resolving the FDMN issue include:

1. Repatriation: The problems of the FDMNs and the Rohingya diaspora worldwide are best solved if they are settled in their ancestral lands in Rakhine State, Myanmar. The FDMNs in Bangladesh desperately want to return to their homes. A tentative course of action may involve:
Designating a 'safe zone' of 50 km x 50 km (roughly 2,500 sq km) as a "Special Autonomous Rohingya Area (SARA)" within Myanmar (Rakhine State) to safeguard and preserve Rohingya interests. This structure may resemble the "American Indian Reservation" in the USA or the Special Administrative Region (SAR) Oecusse-Ambeno in East Timor, as well as the Chinese "Special Autonomous Regions (SAR)" like Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Tibet (Xizang), and Xinjiang.

Initiating a pilot project followed by a comprehensive phased repatriation process, supervised by relevant stakeholders and also by ASEAN (which has ethno-religious similarities with Myanmar and its internal stakeholders) to oversee the materialization of the complete process. ASEAN civil-military observers may continue supervision until a post-junta democratic government takes full charge of the country.

Engaging the Myanmarese junta, along with the opposition National Unity Government (NUG) and AA, which are pivotal in resolving the Rohingya crisis. It is worth mentioning that the NUG has already recognized the Rohingyas as citizens and promised their security and rights.

Maintaining parallel communications with the junta and the AA to diffuse tension along the border, facilitate FDMN repatriation, and prevent further influx. International bodies may influence them for the smooth materialization of the process.

2. Resettlement in a Third Country: This approach, though theoretically plausible, retains many uncertainties regarding any nation's willingness to accommodate the FDMNs, the Rohingyas' willingness to permanently live as a stateless or rootless diaspora, and the overall practicability and feasibility of such an approach.

Overall, the prolonged absence of a practical and sustainable solution to the FDMN issue is sure to result in local, regional, and global strategic consequences-a phenomenon that equally warrants long-overdue appropriate global attention.

The writer is an International Relations (IR) student at the Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)



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