Global inaction over Rohingya repatriation shocks Bangladesh: PM

PBC News:  Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has demanded intensified global actions with “real urgency” to repatriate Rohingyas, saying inaction of major international powers over the crisis shocked Bangladesh as it extended them makeshift refuge on humanitarian grounds, straining the country’s resources.

“As I repeatedly said they (Rohingyas) are Myanmar nationals and hence, they must go back to their homeland, Myanmar, in safety and dignity,” she told a high-level interaction of global stakeholders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) session in New York on Wednesday afternoon (Bangladesh time early Thursday)

She insisted that the issue was a matter of regional and global security concerns and therefore it needed urgent resolution while “I would like to emphasize that whatever we are doing in Bangladesh is purely on a temporary basis”.

She said the international community “must do everything possible to make sure the Rohingyas return to their homeland as they themselves also wish to return to their home”.

Simultaneously, the premier put her weight towards the campaign to expose to justice the people responsible for persecution of the minority Rohingya community for the sake of justice and infusing a sense of confidence among the victim population in returning their home.

The virtual meeting, titled “High-Level Side Event on Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (Rohingya) crisis: Imperatives for a Sustainable Solution,” was held under Bangladesh auspices ahead of her scheduled UNGA address on September 24.

Officials concerned said the meeting was organized as part of Dhaka’s efforts to highlight the crisis in the main UNGA general debate.

Bangladesh organised the event co-sponsored by eight countries and organisations including the United Kingdom (UK), Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the European Union (EU).

The prime minister said since that mass exodus in 2017, at all the successive UNGAs, she placed specific proposals for a sustainable solution to the crisis while “my government has maintained bilateral engagements with Myanmar”.

“At the regional front, we have tried to take on board the major powers, including China and India. We have all along tried to have more active involvement of the Asean,” she said.

“At the multilateral front, we kept the issue on the table by UN resolutions engaging important countries and the UN agencies but sadly our efforts for the hapless, uprooted Myanmar Nationals returning home to Myanmar has not generated any tangible outcome yet”.

“Till today, not a single one of them could go back to their homeland,” she said.