‘No expectations’: Bangladesh election means little to 1m Rohingya refugees

The two main parties say they will push for repatriation to Myanmar. But that’s unrealistic, say experts.

Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – On a Thursday afternoon, 19-year-old Mahmudul Hasan prepared seating on the floor of his bamboo-and-tarpaulin home in Balukhali Rohingya Refugee camp.

Minutes later, 35 young children trooped in. Hasan is still in his teens, but he is their teacher. They greeted him in Rakhine language: “Sayar, Nay Kaung Lar? [Sir, how are you?]” The children are among 80 who study at Hasan’s community-run private school, where he teaches them Burmese, English and maths.

But nearby, a Bangladeshi government official on a motorcycle was trying to educate all those who would listen about something else: He was making announcements about the country’s upcoming February 12 elections.

Between February 9 and February 13, the official yelled out on a microphone, people in the refugee camp should keep their shops shut and not venture outside the camp. And he warned them: Anyone found participating in any political campaign would receive “serious punishment” – they could lose their registration card and a separate document that allows refugees access to subsidised rations.

The camps in Cox’s Bazar are home to more than 1 million Rohingya refugees, who were forced to flee Myanmar in 2017 after a brutal military crackdown. At a time when most countries shunned them, Bangladesh – under then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina – gave them shelter. But the election season warnings to them were a reminder of how, at the same time, life in Bangladesh is life in limbo: Limited education, health, rations, livelihood options, and freedom of movement.