Mohammad Zaman

There is no dearth of opinion on the Rohingya repatriation issue with political leaders, scholars, and even ordinary people all weighing in with their own views.

There are over a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, including the latest batch of 800,000 that came after August 25, 2017 and the 250,000 that arrived since the first exodus of mid-1990s.

It is now clear that the Bangladesh government is all set to relocate nearly 100,000 Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char, a remote island off its coast, starting April 2019.

To date, much has been written and said about the Rohingya crisis. The regime in Naypyidaw has literally flouted all international laws and evaded pressures from the international community.

Bangladesh is viewed globally as the “epic centre” for climate disasters. The country, due to its unique location, is battered regularly by extreme weather events such as high floods and tropical cyclone disasters displacing hundreds and thousands of people annually.

In mid-November, the world was watching with apprehension the unfolding drama surrounding the repatriation of the first batch of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

I recently attended a public seminar, titled “Resilient Cities: An Integrated Economic Approach to Natural Hazard Risk Mitigation,” held in Vancouver, Canada.

Many reports in recent weeks have highlighted the growing social, economic, environmental and health impacts of Rohingya refugees being settled in Teknaf and other areas of Cox's Bazar.

It is unsurprising that the process of hasty return of the Rohingyas has already faced a snag. The scheduled repatriation of the first

For Bangladesh, the repatriation of the Rohingya refugees with dignity and full citizenship rights remains the only viable solution, but the circumstances surrounding the Rohingya crisis do not look promising for them to safely return to their homeland anytime soon and rebuild their future.

I was eagerly waiting for Bob Rae's report on the Rohingya refugees and their repatriation to Myanmar. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Rae, a former premier of Ontario, as Canada's Rohingya envoy on October 23, 2017.

My recent op-ed in The Daily Star (December 11 2017) was on the Rohingya repatriation and resettlement issue.

In the past weeks, three important developments related to the Rohingya issue took place. First was the agreement between the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar on the refugee repatriation.

Endless streams of Rohingyas have crossed the Naf River into Bangladesh. The deaths of children at sea stand out most vividly. Rohingyas have left behind everything they had once known in the face of the Myanmar military's brutalities against their own people.

It is no wonder that Dhaka was ranked 137th with an overall rating of 38.7. The top scoring cities in the global ranking share a few important commonalities that are worth noting: (i) they are generally mid-sized; (ii) located in wealthier countries, and (iii) have a relatively low population density.

I am intrigued by the recent remarks made by Zhu Ruo, a leading urban planning expert in China, suggesting that Dhaka follow Shanghai's example in regards to urban transformation and growth.