UNHCR’s double standards

Photo: www.msf.org.

The UN Refugee agency, UNHCR has been playing a discriminatory role against the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in Bangladesh.

The agency has been supporting around 30,000 Rohingya refugees staying in the camps. On the other hand, it is not receiving applications for refugee status from the newly arrived Rohingyas. This amounts to compromising of its mandate.

As Bangladesh is not a state party to the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951 and its Protocol of 1967, it has no domestic legislation on asylum and refugees. Therefore, there is no state-run system in place for Refugee Status Determination (RSD). Against this backdrop, UNHCR has been receiving and processing applications for RSD from asylum seekers from various countries. Nevertheless, UNHCR has not been receiving applications from the Rohingya asylum seekers from Myanmar. (If received not processed).

The recognized refugees under UNHCR Bangladesh are from Myanmar (i.e. non-Rohingya like the Rakhine, Chin etc), Sri Lanka, Iraq, and as far away as Somalia and Sudan.

UNHCR has been running RSD procedure (without any formal approval from the government!) for the last 15 years or so. However, the list of the recognised refugees is submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs. Nevertheless, the government does not have access to the profile of the individuals (who are they and what really they are in Bangladesh for).

It is learnt that UNHCR has not been receiving applications from the Rohingyas referring to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh, which reportedly stated that no Rohingya would be recognised as a refugee in Bangladesh after May 1994.

This so-called MoU has been depriving the persecuted Rohingyas from seeking international protection, which they are entitled to as per international human rights law. The so-called MoU is clearly against the spirit of the Refugee Convention and other relevant human rights instruments.

UNHCR is not critical of the so-called MoU signed back in 1994. It needs to be reviewed from the perspective of human rights.

 

Source: The Daily Star