As violence and forced conscription of Rohingya youths continue in Myanmar, hopes for the safe return of refugees to their homeland are fading.
Bangladesh has been taking in fellow Muslims from Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state to the southern coastal district of Cox's Bazar, providing food and shelter since a bloody 2017 army crackdown forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims across the border.
Myanmar's military junta has ruled since a coup in February 2021 ousted the democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi-led civilian government.
Since then, Myanmar has been rocked by fighting between numerous ethnic rebel groups and the military.
The Arakan Army (AA) rebel group — which is fighting the ruling junta for control of Myanmar's western borderlands — wants more autonomy for the ethnic Rakhine people, a population that is also accused of aiding the military in their expulsion of the Rohingya.
The AA is the well-armed military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority that seeks autonomy from Myanmar's central government. It has been attacking army outposts in Rakhine state since November 2023.
Escaping the civil war
Roshid Ahmad, who fled Myanmar's fighting, is grateful for being "one of those who made it out alive."
The 21-year-old Rohingya from Rakhine's Maungdaw township got a boat to Bangladesh with his mother and brother in December 2024.
"Not every Rohingya gets to flee Myanmar in one piece, let alone with their loved ones," he told DW in a video call from a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar.
"The Arakan Army rebels are forcibly taking away Rohingya young men from villages, conscripting and making them fight against the Myanmar Military," Ahmad said.
"Many of the abducted Rohingya have disappeared without any trace."
"Starvation and untreated diseases are killing the Rohingya in Rakhine,” Ahmad claimed, adding that, "I don't believe Rohingya can ever go back."
Last year, both the junta and the AA began forcibly recruiting Rohingya youths, reported Human Rights Watch.
Several Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh recently told DW about how their community had suffered in Myanmar.
Jawad Alom, who fled to Bangladesh in September along with his four brothers and cousins, as well as their families, accused multiple AA rebels of gang raping his sister-in-law.
"The AA men raided our village in Buthidaung, aiming to abduct some Rohingya men. My brother and I slipped out of the village," Alom told DW.
Alom said they returned to their village after the rebels had left, only to find they "had gang-raped at least half a dozen Rohingya women, including my brother's wife."
"When we left our village for Bangladesh, on the way we found scores of bodies floating on roadside ponds," Alom claimed.
"They looked like Rohingya men, apparently executed by AA rebels. They sometimes killed Rohingya who resisted against their attempts of abduction or conscription."
According to a recent estimate by the Bangladesh government, over 65,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since the end of 2023. Other estimates put the figures as high as 80,000.
'Little hope' of repatriation to Myanmar
Several attempts in the past years to repatriate Rohingya failed with the community members refusing to return home citing insecurity.
Refugee experts say that although repatriation with dignity and rights would be the ideal option, there is no hope for it in the near future.
Canada-based refugee resettlement expert Mohammad Zaman noted that the military has "remained repressive and carried out a second, or some say, even a third wave of genocide" against the Rohingya people.
"That is no right environment to return to," Zaman told DW.
"Even though the AA controls a large part of northern Rakhine State, displaced people can't trust them due to atrocities committed in the process by the AA. This is an issue as political as it is humanitarian. The resolution wouldn't be easy."
Zaman added that the inaction of the international community in terms of the latest genocide is "deplorable."
Khalilur Rahman, high representative on Rohingya issues for Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh's interim government leader, told DW that his country stands ready to positively consider supporting the efforts of the United Nations system to provide humanitarian and livelihood assistance to the people of Rakhine.
"However, this can be done only if conflict and violence, air strikes and bombings, and widespread violations of the human rights of Rohingyas, in particular, are ended," he said.
"Moreover, aid providers and recipients should have unimpeded access and be free from any violence, displacement, discrimination, intimidation, and harassment."
If these conditions and aid principles are met, said Rahman, it will create enabling circumstances on the ground for "voluntary, safe, and dignified return of the forcibly displaced Rohingyas from Bangladesh to Rakhine."
Denial of Rohingya identity
Rohingya human rights activist Htway Lwin said that besides the varied forms of violence against the Rohingya, the AA also denies their identity as natives of Myanmar.
"While we maintain our dream of returning to our ancestral lands, we cannot accept any repatriation process that would expose us to further harm," Lwin told DW.
"The Bangladesh and [the] international community must ensure that repatriation is not a forced process into continued statelessness, but one based on legal recognition, accountability, and structural protections."
"Without these guarantees, return risks becoming yet another cycle of genocide and dispossession," Lwin concluded.
Edited by: Keith Walker
Author: Shaikh Azizur Rahman
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