An Assessment of the International Legal Obligations Owed to the Rohingya Refugees

This paper considers the issue of migration of the Rohingyas from the lens of international law. It evaluates the responses of the countries that have been the destination of these migration flows – namely Bangladesh, Thailand, and increasingly, Malaysia and Indonesia (collectively, the “destination countries”) – against their obligations under international law. The response of the destination countries has, regrettably, not been entirely consistent with the international legal framework. Things are however beginning to take a turn for the better. The discovery of mass graves on Thailand’s border with Malaysia generated international pressure and pushed countries into taking collaborative action. The outcome of this collaboration has been encouraging and it represents a closer alignment with the international legal framework. However, this alignment, stemming as it does from an ad hoc arrangement, might prove to be short-lived for reasons that will be explored. This paper proceeds in the following manner: Section I assesses the extent of the destination countries’ compliance with their international legal obligations, following which Section II explores the durability of the compliance with international law that seems to have emerged recently. Here, it will be argued that this compliance is likely to be short-lived. Even more fundamentally, it will be shown that international law by itself cannot offer a comprehensive solution to this thorny problem; international cooperation is a must.