South Asia State of Minorities Report 2019
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), is obliged to register
all births—a duty affirmed in the Births and Deaths Registration
Act 2004 which is applicable to everyone including ‘any foreigner
living in Bangladesh and also any refugee taking shelter in
Bangladesh’.27 While all Rohingya children born in Bangladesh
therefore have the legal right to a birth certificate, for the children
of unregistered Rohingya living outside the camps, this is still not
possible. This in in clear violation of Bangladesh’s responsibilities
in international law, including the provisions of the CRC (Article 7)
and ICCPR (Article 24). The exclusion of many Rohingya children
from formal registration has been in evidence for many years and
has played a major role in the crisis of statelessness that Rohingya
in Bangladesh face today.28
Human Rights and Security
Unsurprisingly, Bangladesh has struggled to cope with the
scale of the crisis that has unfolded since 2017 and the influx
of large numbers of Rohingya refugees into the country.
Consequently, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya continue to
face acute humanitarian and protection needs. Reports of illicit
or unauthorised activities within and outside the camps have also
resulted in a heavy-handed and at times indiscriminate security
response from authorities, with frequent reports of extrajudicial
killings by human rights groups.29
Registered Rohingya living in recognised camps are also not
permitted to move freely. Local authorities have enforced tight
restrictions on Rohingya movement in Teknar, Ukhiya and
other areas of Cox’s Bazaar, to the extent that even Bangladeshi
citizens have to carry national identity cards in these areas.
These restrictions impact heavily on economic livelihoods
and even, for unregistered refugees, the ability to access relief
assistance. Rohingya working illegally face the constant threat of
27 Bangladesh National Government, The Births and Deaths Registration Act,
2004, Act No. 29 of 2004, Chapter 2(1n).
28 Amal de Chickera, ‘Statelessness and identity in the Rohingya refugee
crisis’, Humanitarian Practice Network, October 2018.
29 For example, see Amnesty International, ‘Stop extrajudicial executions
of Rohingya refugees and end restrictions to their freedom of movement’,
November 4, 2019.
28
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