Rohingya Refugees: Humanitarian Responses and Implications

Since August 2017, systematic persecution of the Rohingya ethnic minority in Myanmar's Rakhine State has forced almost a million Rohingyas—approximately half of whom are children, to seek refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh. The magnitude and scale of the displacement made it the world's fastest-growing refugee crisis and a major humanitarian emergency. Against the backdrop of an unprecedented crisis, local and international aid organisations and NGOs, with the support of host communities, scaled up the largest humanitarian response in the country's history. As the crisis entered into the protracted phase, the mismatch between the availability of resources and the humanitarian needs of the Rohingyas, together with the refugee-hosting areas' chronic vulnerability, made it one of the most complex humanitarian responses of recent times. The denial of basic rights to the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, as stipulated in the 1951 Refugee Convention, and ongoing deprivation and systematic injustice in Myanmar pose a major challenge to the international humanitarian community.

Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has added additional stress to an already overstretched Rohingya humanitarian response. The unfolding nature of the crisis indicates that international donor agencies need to scale up Rohingya humanitarian response to make it more efficient, effective and inclusive while also continuing diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis at the bilateral and multilateral levels. Such a complex refugee crisis with no immediate solution in sight makes us think about how we understand the dynamic interactions between different humanitarian actors and the interactions and boundaries between the humanitarian actors and beneficiaries they serve. Furthermore, the looming compassion fatigue from the donors’ side, ongoing COVID-19 situation, recent political development in Myanmar and controversial relocation of the Rohingya refugees to Bhashan Char, a low-lying island prone to floods and cyclone, should force us to explore innovative solutions to the emerging challenges that the Rohingya humanitarian response is facing.

This Research Topic aims to examine the manifold implications of the ongoing Rohingya situation and humanitarian response. The following questions, among others, are of particular interest for this special issue:

(a) What effects do regional and international political dynamics have on the Rohingya humanitarian response?
(b) In the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic, what are the evolving trends within the humanitarian system, and how is it affecting Rohingya refugee communities?
(c) What effects do refugees have on host communities' social and economic lives, and what role can refugee aid organisations play in fostering peaceful coexistence among host communities and refugees?
(d) How can donor agencies encourage localisation in humanitarian response and strengthen local crisis management capacity?
(e) What role do women, particularly Rohingya women, play in humanitarian response?
(f) What are some common environmental impacts of the Rohingya refugee crisis? How can we better understand the relationship between the environment and humanitarian response?
(g) What impact does a refugee's choice to live in or outside a camp have on their physical and mental well-being?
(h) How can humanitarian organisations better include crisis-affected refugees and hosts in all phases of the humanitarian program cycle?
(I) How do we evaluate the effectiveness of the Rohingya humanitarian response, and how can the lessons learned from the Rohingya situation and subsequent humanitarian response be used to address gaps in the burgeoning field of refugee literature?