4 Bangladesh, Burma and the Rohingya crisis for continued engagement and the due diligence undertaken to reach that position— including results that have been achieved. This is particularly important and urgent in relation to UK aid-funded support for: • the peace process, and • parliamentary strengthening which, from all the evidence we have received, seem to be going backwards not forwards. DFID also needs to consider increasing the funding for the ethnic communities caught up in the recent conflicts in the North and East and those still trapped in refugee camps on the Thai border whose funds have recently been cut back. There is a model the UK could return to and that is the model of aid to Burma before the lifting of sanctions. The Rohingya crisis The Rohingya crisis remains, as we described it in our initial report, a huge human tragedy and humanitarian crisis, ‘staggering in scale and complexity’. The immediate priority for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh remains protective and mitigating arrangements for the impact of the monsoon season and possible cyclones; the subject of our most recent report. The UK Government’s reply—just received and published alongside this report—points to 200,000 Rohingya refugees at risk from flooding and landslide; of who 24,000 are “extremely vulnerable” and in need of relocation. Our recent discussions with Bangladesh government figures suggested reticence, perhaps simply uncertainty, about plans for relocation. We welcome the UK Government’s reply which stated that 800 acres of additional land has been made available close to the existing camps and engineering work was underway to make as much of it suitable for safe relocation of refugees at risk.1 Bangladesh We commend the generosity and compassion of Bangladesh’s authorities and local communities pursuing the open border policy for Rohingya people fleeing the violent ethnic cleansing campaign conducted by the Burmese army. We recognise the enormous responsibilities that offering this sanctuary has engendered for Bangladesh—already one of the most densely populated countries in the world; one of most vulnerable to natural disasters; and home to around 21 million people living in extreme poverty. It is for these reasons we urge the UK Government to continue and strengthen its efforts to persuade the international community fully to shoulder and share these responsibilities in line with World Humanitarian Summit commitments to recognise the ‘public good’ that countries who host refugees provide for the world. Perhaps once the immediate threat of this year’s monsoon season has receded, we regard the integration, legal status and longer-term issues, such as education and livelihoods, for the Rohingya as of paramount importance for purposeful dialogue with the Bangladesh authorities. 1 Bangladesh and Burma: the Rohingya crisis—monsoon preparedness in Cox’s Bazar: Government response to the Committee’s Third Report, Fifth Special Report, 2017–19, HC 1055, 22 May 2018, p iv