Rohingya issue snowballing?

We need to take it up with Myanmar govtAn on-the-spot investigation by our roving correspondent in Cox's Bazar has led to some startling revelations. In terms of a statistical understanding of the Rohingya presence in our country we were living in a make-believe world -- that seems to be the eye-opening moral of the story scooped by our reporter.

We were under the impression that all but nearly 20,000 Rohingya refugees have already been repatriated to Myanmar. As many as 2,50,877 refugees had trekked into Bangladesh 13 years ago fleeing persecution on the other side of the border.

The repatriation exercise was hailed as an international success because of the sheer magnitude of the humanitarian task involved. The UNHCR and Bangladesh government could congratulate each other on the positive outcome of negotiations with the Myanmar government. So far so good.

Now, with the foot-dragging on the issue of further repatriation involving 19,841 Rohingya refugees, their number perhaps exceeding the benchmark due to new births, we have an upshot which seems like almost a replay of the humanitarian concerns that had visited us a decade or so ago. By unofficial accounts, there has been a sizeable illegal immigration from the Myanmar side of the Rohingyas into our territory. So, the number of refugees sheltering in Bangladesh is said to be much higher than the 20,000 mark. We would like to have an official statement putting the whole issue in perspective.

Needless to say, there is a strong ground to carry out a census of the Rohingyas in our country and bring it up before the UNHCR on the one hand for humanitarian assistance and engage the attention of the Myanmar government on the other so that the exodus is stopped.