Bangladesh’s Iftar Diplomacy with António Gutteres
Key Takeaways from Shafiqul Alam, Press Secretary to Bangladesh's Chief Adviser
Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, made some remarks about Bangladesh’s stance on the Rohingya crisis ahead of the UN Secretary General’s visit to the refugee camps. Sadly, his statement, posted on his personal Facebook page, repackages the same hollow rhetoric we have heard for years. It shows there has been very little thinking about instituting genuine reforms. It perpetuates the same negligent approach to the Rohingya issue.
His words reveal that Bangladesh continues to treat the Rohingya as a disposable population - excluded from full societal participation yet instrumentalised for political, economic, and security purposes.
Let me go through Alam’s seven points one by one.
The Iftar Event
Alam writes:
Tomorrow (Friday), a Million Rohingyas will break fast in their camps in Cox's Bazar with visiting UN Secretaty General Antonio Guterres and Bangladesh Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus. They will participate in the Iftar and hold munajat together. Chief Adviser Professor Yunus is hosting the event.
Hosting an Iftar for Rohingya refugees with UN Secretary General Guterres and Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus creates the illusion of care and inclusion. In reality, it masks the reality of their exclusion. It serves as a symbolic spectacle - offering food for a day while Rohingya starve due to ration cuts, and offering prayers for dignity while systematically denying them the dignity of work or the dignity to move freely.
The UN Secretary-General’s presence at this iftar is pure theatre - a carefully staged performance of compassion that has nothing to do with Rohingya rights.
Also, if this is genuinely a moment of generosity and solidarity, why enforce such a strict ban on cameras and mobile phones? Clearly, this isn't about inclusion - it's about controlling the narrative. Bangladesh wants to ensure that only a carefully curated, sanitised version of events reaches the public, avoiding any uncomfortable truths or images like the one unwittingly shared by OIC Special Envoy for Myanmar, Ibrahim Khairat.
Contact with the Arakan Army: Managing Borders, Not Refugees
Alam writes:
Contact with Arakan Army: Considering the newly emerged situation in the Rakhine state, we ought to act and safeguard our border security, stability and peace. Therefore, we are keeping operational contact with the actors on the other side of the border.
This is the securitised worldview laid bare. Bangladesh’s engagement with the Arakan Army isn’t about ensuring Rohingya safety - it’s about fortifying its borders and tightening its grip. It prioritises border security over refugee rights. The Rohingya aren’t seen as genocide survivors in need of protection but as a disruptive force to be controlled.
Repatriation as the Only Solution?
Alam writes:
The solution of the Rohingya issue lies in sustainable repatriation of the Rohingyas back to Myanmar. This should be the highest priority of the international community. Bangladesh is relentlessly working toward this objective.
Bangladesh’s obsessive fixation on repatriation is a cynical evasion of responsibility. First, it ignores the reality that Myanmar currently remains unsafe for Rohingya return. By making repatriation the only option, Bangladesh absolves itself of any duty to grant them rights, livelihoods, or even basic dignity. Bangladesh pretends to be a mere transit point rather than the country that has confined Rohingya behind barbed wire for years. It’s a calculated strategy to keep the Rohingya in limbo. They are trapped in a cycle of exclusion and their suffering is used to justify their own continued marginalisation.
Hosting Rohingya as a Burden
For his 4th point, Alam writes:
Bangladesh has been hosting 1.2 million Rohingya refugees for long 8 years. In recent months. around 80,000 more Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh. It is beyond the capacity of Bangladesh to continue to host the forcibly displaced Rohingyas.
The claim that Bangladesh has ‘exceeded its capacity’ to host Rohingya refugees is a cynical sleight of hand - it turns genocide survivors into scapegoats for state policy failures. By denying them the right to work, Bangladesh effectively creates their dependence and then condemns them as an intolerable burden! This kind of argument absolves the state of responsibility and reduces a persecuted people to a surplus population - mere numbers rather than human beings with rights and dignity
International Aid Cuts. Aid Dependency & Manufactured Desperation
For his fifth point, Alam outsmarts himself:
International support for Rohingyas has taken a turn for the worse, leading to the decision to cut the daily food ration for the Rohingyas. This will severely affect their nutritional status, particularly women and children. It will also have serious social and security implications, including safety and security within the camps and in the host community. We reiterate our appeal to all donors and the UN system to ensure that the assistance to Rohingyas is given high priority and aid to them does not diminish.
So he openly admits that ration cuts will fuel malnutrition and chaos - yet instead of offering real solutions, like granting Rohingya the right to work, his government will exploit the crisis to demand more aid. This is not humanitarianism; it is a deliberate tactic. The state of Bangladesh has deliberately engineered Rohingya dependence by blocking employment, only to wield their suffering as a bargaining chip. This vicious cycle sustains an aid-industrial complex that manages the crisis rather than resolving it. And it keeps Rohingya trapped in permanent destitution.
Humanitarian Assistance to Rakhine
Alam writes:
In light of the dire humanitarian situation in Rakhine State, Bangladesh will positively consider supporting UN-led humanitarian assistance to the state.
He doesn’t say much here, but he feigns concern for Rakhine’s ‘dire humanitarian situation’ while Bangladesh keeps Rohingya in squalid camps, where armed groups roam with impunity, and blocks their right to work. He is signaling a willingness to cooperate with the powers that be in Myanmar - especially perhaps with the Arakan Army - not to secure justice for the Rohingya necessarily, but to extract international concessions.
7. Hope Without Action or Repatriation as an Illusion
For his final point, Alam writes:
We hope that the UN Secretary General will give the Rohingya community a message of hope that they will be able to return to their homeland soon in dignity and with safety, and that all of their rights will be fully established and respected. We would also urge that the Secretary General will invest his exceptional leadership to make progress toward the objective of their early repatriation and ensure that international aid to Rohingyas are not adversely affected.End
Calling on the UN Secretary-General to give the Rohingya ‘hope’ about return is a hollow gesture that ignores the reality. Neither the Myanmar military nor the Arakan Army have any intention of reinstating their rights. It’s a smokescreen to avoid granting tangible rights in Bangladesh. By fixating on ‘hope’ rather than concrete solutions, Bangladesh ensures the Rohingya remain a surplus population - neither integrated nor resettled, just indefinitely warehoused in camps and trapped in limbo.
Conclusion:
Shafiqul Alam’s statement reflects Bangladesh’s long-standing approach:
The Rohingya are maintained as a permanently surplus population - neither granted rights nor allowed to move forward.
They are excluded economically and politically but used strategically - as bargaining chips for aid, as a security justification, and as diplomatic leverage in regional affairs.
Their suffering is managed, not resolved - ensuring they remain trapped between repatriation rhetoric and aid dependency, with no real pathway forward.
None of this is resolving the Rohingya crisis.