Editorial | Lessons from Cox’s Bazar

It isn’t a name that’s familiar to the people of Jamaica, or the wider Caribbean –Cox’s Bazar.

Cox’s Bazar is a 13 square kilometre tent city in Bangladesh. The people who live there, 1.2 million Rohingyas from Myanmar, are not without relevance to Jamaica and the Caribbean.  But, they are an example of what can happen when societies are destabilised - whether by conflict, natural disasters or other disruptions.

According to the United Nations, the Rohingyas in Bangladesh rely entirely on humanitarian assistance for protection, food, water, shelter and health.  Another 3.7 million are internally displaced in Myanmar, most since the military takeover in 2021. The first military crackdown against Rohingyas began in October 2016. 

A Muslim ethnic minority, Rohingyas have lived for centuries in Myanmar (previously Burma) without official recognition as an ethnic community. Many have no legal identity or citizenship, which they have been denied since 1982.  They were the world’s largest stateless population.

More than 8,000 kilometres separate Myanmar and Bangladesh from the Caribbean. Yet, the crisis surrounding one of the world's most persecuted minorities raises pertinent questions for this region, even though the Caribbean has not faced a refugee/displaced persons’ problem on the scale of the Rohingya crisis.  Nonetheless, the Caribbean is exposed to migration pressures and humanitarian challenges. 

LARGEST DISPLACEMENT

Haiti, plagued by political instability, armed gangs and economic collapse, has produced one of the largest displacement crises in the Western Hemisphere.

The United Nation’s refugee agency, International Organization for Migration (IOM), estimates that more than one million Haitians were internally displaced by the end of 2024. Hundreds of thousands more have sought refuge elsewhere. Several Caribbean countries, including Jamaica, The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, have grappled with the arrival of Haitian migrants seeking protection and economic opportunity. 

“Haiti’s displacement crisis is entering an even more alarming phase,” said Gregoire Goodstein, IOM’s chief of mission in Haiti. In May alone, renewed attacks in the densely populated Cité Soleil district – the capital’s largest slum – displaced more than 18,000 people within days. The surge pushed the number of internally displaced people in Port-au-Prince above 300,000 for the first time on record.

Without legal identity, people are deprived of basic human rights, they exist in a permanent state of uncertainty, vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. The consequences of statelessness are severe.

Given the complexity and uncertainty of the geopolitical trends, especially with the current United States stance on immigrants, there is a critical need to evaluate Jamaica’s policy, taking into account international humanitarian law, decency and basic humanity. While the island cannot absorb unlimited numbers of migrants, neither should vulnerable people be treated with indifference. In that regard, the refugee/migration challenges in the Caribbean also require coordinated regional responses to help overcome the economic and other constraints of individual regional states.

SEVERAL LESSONS

Here, the Rohingya issue offers several lessons.

First, statelessness is a humanitarian issue with profound political consequences. People without citizenship are often trapped in cycles of poverty and instability that eventually spill across borders. Preventing exclusion and protecting rights are therefore matters of international stability.

Second, refugee crises rarely remain confined to one country. Bangladesh has shouldered a burden that far exceeds its own resources. Similarly, instability in Haiti affects neighbouring Caribbean states. Migration, crime and economic disruption do not recognise national boundaries.

Third, international solidarity matters. The response to the Rohingya crisis has involved governments, multilateral agencies and humanitarian organisations. While far from perfect, it demonstrates the importance of collective action. 

Caribbean countries have long relied on solidarity following hurricanes and natural disasters. Similar cooperation is needed to address migration and displacement.

This is where CARICOM's role becomes critical. The regional grouping has maintained that solutions to Haiti's crisis must be Haitian-led while supporting efforts to restore democratic governance and public security. But the region also needs a more coherent framework for asylum, refugee protection and migration management. Such a framework should recognise international obligations while respecting the limited capacities of small states.

The Caribbean's history ought to inform this approach. Many of the region's people are descendants of those who endured forced displacement, statelessness and exclusion. The memory of slavery and indentureship should encourage empathy without compromising sovereignty.

Jamaica, too, must continue to strengthen its institutions. Refugee and asylum procedures remain underdeveloped, and the country lacks comprehensive legislation addressing statelessness. As migration pressures increase, these deficiencies will become harder to ignore.