boat people of the world?” said Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen in February. “No, not
at all.” 28
In 2015, governments from the region had pledged to collectively address the risks of
irregular boat migration and protect the rights of migrants and trafficking victims under the
auspices of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asia and the Pacific
Regional Meeting of the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the Bali Process on
People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime. 29 The
pushbacks since and forced returns of Rohingya asylum seekers demonstrate little effort to
follow through on those commitments.
Dire Conditions and Abuses in the Cox’s Bazar Camps
The main refugee settlement in Cox’s Bazar is severely overcrowded, with risks of
communicable diseases, fires, community tensions, and domestic and sexual violence.
Access to essential reproductive, maternal, and newborn health services remains a
significant concern. 30 Refugees in Cox’s Bazar have faced tightened restrictions on their
rights to information, movement, access to education, and health, and some have been
unlawfully killed by Bangladeshi security forces. 31
28 Ruma Paul, “Exclusive: Bangladesh Under ‘No Obligation’ to Accept Stranded Rohingya Refugees, Says Minister,” Reuters,
February 26, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bangladesh-rohingya-un-exclusive-idUSKBN2AR08E (accessed May
22, 2021).
29 The Bali Process,
“Comprehensive Approaches for Addressing Irregular Movements of People by Sea,” Workshop
Facilitation Guide, January 2015,
https://www.baliprocess.net/UserFiles/baliprocess/File/Facilitation%20Guide%20on%20Comprehensive%20Approaches
%20for%20Addressing%20Irregular%20Movements%20of%20People%20by%20Sea_FINAL_101017.pdf (accessed April 15,
2021); International Labour Organization, “The Bali Declaration” Adopted at the 16th Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting in
Bali, Indonesia, on December 9, 2016, APRM. 16/D.6, https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/--relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_537445.pdf (accessed April 15, 2021); “East Asia Summit Declaration on
Strengthening Responses to Migrants in Crisis and Trafficking in Persons,” September 2016,
https://asean.org/storage/2016/09/EAS-Declaration-on-Strenghtening-Responses-to-Migrants-in-Crisis-and-TIP1.pdf
(accessed April 15, 2021).
30 Malabika Sarker et al., “Effective maternal, newborn and child health programming among Rohingya refugees in Cox’s
Bazar, Bangladesh: Implementation challenges and potential solutions, “PLoS One, vol. 15, no. 3 (2020), accessed May 13,
2021, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0230732.
31 Brad Adams, “Spate of Bangladesh ‘Crossfire’ Killings of Rohingya,” Human Rights Watch dispatch, September 18, 2019,
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/09/18/spate-bangladesh-crossfire-killings-rohingya; Human Rights Watch, “‘Are We Not
Human?’ Denial of Education for Rohingya Refugee Children in Bangladesh,” December 3, 2019,
https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/12/03/are-we-not-human/denial-education-rohingya-refugee-children-bangladesh;
“Bangladesh: Halt Plans to Fence-In Rohingya Refugees,” Human Rights Watch news release, September 30, 2019,
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/09/30/bangladesh-halt-plans-fence-rohingya-refugees; “Bangladesh: Internet Ban Risks
Rohingya Lives,” Human Rights Watch news release, March 26, 2020, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/26/bangladeshinternet-ban-risks-rohingya-lives.
“AN ISLAND JAIL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEA”
18