Commissioner for Human Rights26 and ‘crimes against humanity’ by human rights organisations.27 As a result, over 500,000 refugees have arrived in Bangladesh in five weeks and more continue to arrive.28 The sheer scale of the displacement; the condition of the new arrivals, e.g., facing starvation, fatigue and trauma, many with gunshot wounds and landmine injuries; and their demographics, the majority being children, women and the elderly; means that Bangladesh is currently facing a humanitarian catastrophe. 13. Bangladesh has struggled to cope with the scale and intensity of this new wave of forced migration, and the co-submitting organisations recognise that it is not possible for one individual country to cope with such a significant strain on its resources, without adequate support from the international community. While we urge the international community to support Bangladesh through the provision of resources and the resettlement of refugees, it is important to express in this submission, some concerns about Bangladesh’s response to the crisis. 14. Significantly, the situation at the time of making this submission must be viewed in light of Bangladesh’s track record of failure to protect hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in the country. Furthermore, as noted, Bangladesh has also rejected previous efforts to negotiate resettlement of Rohingya refugees. Consequently, there remain concerns related to Bangladesh’s commitment to addressing the short-term emergency humanitarian needs and the mid-term human rights of Rohingya refugees. 15. In this regard, the refusal of Bangladesh to recognise that these arrivals – escaping persecution – are refugees, is of significant concern. Instead, Bangladesh uses the term ‘forcibly displaced’ when referring to the Rohingya.29 This term fails to acknowledge that the Rohingya who have fled Myanmar are by definition refugees, who are entitled to international protection. Furthermore, Bangladeshi border guards have been reported to burn boats that carry Rohingya refugees in an attempt to restrict their entry into the country.30 16. A related particular concern is Bangladesh’s call for Rohingya refugees to be returned to Myanmar, which has been followed by discussions between the two countries in this regard.31 The co-submitting organisations are of the position that return of refugees to Myanmar in the present circumstances would amount to refoulement in clear violation of basic principles of international law. A Policy Brief of the Institute on this issue,32 sets out basic conditions to be met by Myanmar, before return can be considered in compliance with international law. These include: I. Any repatriation of Rohingya refugees must be voluntary. The notion of ‘voluntariness’ requires that inter alia: a. All refugees are provided with adequate information about their rights under international law, including their right to refugee protection and to not be forcibly returned. b. All refugees are provided with viable alternatives - protection in Bangladesh or resettlement to third countries - so that their choice to return is not influenced by a lack of protection. 26 BBC, Rohingya crisis: UN sees ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Myanmar, 11 September 2017, available here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41224108 27 See the Global Appeal for Action signed by 88 NGOs on 28 September 2017, and available here: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/28/myanmar-global-appeal-un-action 28 For an overview of the situation as of 30 September 2017, see http://www.institutesi.org/stateless_bulletin_2017-09.pdf 29 See for example: https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2017/10/01/bangladesh-wants-peaceful-solution-to-rohingya-issue-foreignminister 30 Kathleen Prior, Bangladesh boarder guards ‘burning boats’ that bring Rohingya in bid to crack down on refugee flow, THE TELEGRAPH, 22 September 2017, available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/22/bangladesh-border-guards-burningboats-bring-rohingya-bid-crack/ 31 See Frontier Myanmar, Myanmar makes proposal to take back refugees, 2 October 2017, available at: https://frontiermyanmar.net/en/myanmar-makes-proposal-to-take-back-refugees 32 See http://www.institutesi.org/news/news_analysis.php 5