Administrative and judicial biopolitics—analysing the special prohibitions on marriage between Bangladeshis and Rohingya refugees

Abstract This article analyses the current prohibition against registration of marriages between Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi citizens in light of Bangladesh’s domestic jurisprudence and international norms governing the right to marry for refugees and non-citizens. Rohingyas have been residing in Bangladesh since the late 1970s, and a large exodus from Myanmar in 2017 resulted in the arrival of approximately 725,000 persons fleeing persecution. Having a largely piecemeal protection framework, the Bangladeshi government responded by applying stringent administrative controls over their movement, livelihood, and private life, which, it is argued here, amount to measures of biopolitical control of Rohingyas. Among these restrictions, one order promulgated by the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs prohibits the registration of marriages between Rohingyas and Bangladeshis. This article examines the validity of the order and the corresponding Bangladeshi High Court judgment from the context of international human rights standards and domestic jurisprudence relating to private life, and concludes that its blanket applicability violates not only international law but also domestic law. The article contends that the validation of unchecked executive power by the judiciary must be read in the context of Bangladesh’s biopolitical agenda of managing the Rohingya crisis at the level of a populational abstraction, rather than by adjudicating on individual protections and rights that are to be extended to refugees residing on lawful humanitarian grounds.