The Rohingya Crisis: Political Impacts on Bangladesh

Abstract

In 2012, 2016 and 2017, brutal crackdowns by the Myanmar military forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people to escape to neighboring Bangladesh. Today, Bangladesh is host to nearly one million Rohingya refugees. The Rohingya crisis has been a politically contentious issue amongst domestic stakeholders, which poses a major challenge to the incumbent Awami League (AL) government. Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina has also faced competing preferences from different international stakeholders on the Rohingya issue. This thesis explores how and why the Rohingya crisis has impacted Bangladesh’s domestic politics and international relations. At the domestic level, the Rohingya crisis changed Bangladesh’s border policy, heightened tensions among political actors and increased civil society’s dissatisfaction with the AL government. At the international level, the Rohingya crisis hampered Bangladesh-Myanmar relations. However, economic and security ties with regional powers, India and China, remained unaffected by the Rohingya crisis. Through its involvement in the Rohingya crisis, Bangladesh strengthened relations with the international community overtime. Finally, the Rohingya crisis has contributed to the rising threat of terrorism, which has important political implications for Bangladesh.