Refugee influx raises local poverty levels

According to World Bank's "Bangladesh Poverty Assessment Report" released on October 7, the influx of the Rohingya population in Cox's Bazar has raised local poverty level by approximately 52 percent, while the average daily wage in the area has dropped by about 24 percent between August 2017 and May 2018. However, we are informed that as this is a localised phenomenon, the national poverty level will remain unaffected.

Some 650,000 Rohingyas arrived in the two upazilas of Teknaf and Ukhiya over a three-month period and basically doubled the population of these two upazilas, impacting poverty there, and caused an increase in prices of commodities. As the area is predominantly agricultural, workers in the host community are dependent on daily work. Hence, as more and more members of the Rohingyas get involved economically, the nosedive in wages was bound to happen. Local employers are taking advantage of the refugee crisis and hiring workers at lower wages. The livelihoods of the Rohingyas are similar to that of ours, and before the crisis that gripped Rakhine State, they were primarily involved in agriculture.  

The fact remains that the presence of such a massive foreign population has stretched local patience to a limit. The same limited natural resources are now being depleted at alarming rates, and tensions are beginning to surface. Unless the issue is resolved soon, problems tied to the refugee crisis will not be limited to Cox's Bazar but start expanding outwards. While Bangladesh is faced with a complicated challenge, Myanmar isn't being pressurised enough to take back its nationals. It has employed delaying tactics to evade its responsibility.