Although the international community unanimously condemns the actions of the Myanmar military against the Rohingya, Bangladesh, currently hosting close to a million Rohingya refugees, has seen very little in the way of tangible support.
The World Bank said in September that it was prepared to provide financial assistance to Bangladesh for accommodating the stateless Rohingya, but the assistance is likely to be in the form of a repayable loan.
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman strongly criticised the World Bank for attempting to lend the money to Bangladesh as opposed to giving it as a grant.
We agree with Dr Iftekharuzzaman that this is absolutely unacceptable and unfair.
It makes little sense for Bangladesh to have to literally pay for a crisis we had no role in creating. If it were not for geographic proximity, this human catastrophe would not be overwhelmingly up to Bangladesh to tackle.
The WB has considerable leverage in Myanmar, given the hundreds of millions of dollars of its funds that have been dispensed into the country’s development projects, with even more in the pipeline. As such, the organisation should do more to force Myanmar’s hand into taking back the Rohingya and granting them citizenship.
Bangladesh volunteered to shelter the fleeing Rohingya at tremendous risk to itself.
So while Bangladesh does most of the humanitarian work, a global financial institution like the World Bank, with a $2 billion refugee fund at its disposal, should at least provide the funds in the form of a grant.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
