The potential refugee status of the Rohingya in Bangladesh under International Refugee Law

Abstract

Finding a solution to the Rohingya refugee crisis has been frequently brought to attention by the international community, humanitarian organisations and academic scholars. As they are affected by the world’s fastest growing humanitarian crisis, the Rohingya are one of the most marginalised and persecuted groups, marking one of the most significant events in contemporary world history. The framework within International Refugee Law could potentially offer protection for the Rohingya refugees, under the 1951 Geneva Convention, the main regulation to locate the assistance of refugees. The current refugee crisis will be assessed through a theoretical approach from postcolonialism to understand the complexity of the social and political roots of the persecution in Myanmar. The tensions that arise from the violence and suffering endured by the Rohingya has been relevant since the colonial period. Accordingly, this essay explores how the Rohingya refugee crisis illustrates the inadequate protection of laws under International Refugee Law, resulting in the construction of postcolonial statehood. At face value, the framework of international law should provide an appropriate solution, but the legal enforcement seems to have opposite effect. To pinpoint the source of the problem would intensify an incremental step closer to providing a long-lasting suitable solution to provide international support to the Rohingya.