Pressure on Myanmar needed for return of Rohingya people: Bangladeshi FM
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Pressure must be put on Myanmar so that it starts taking back the over one million Rohingya people who are currently sheltered in Bangladesh, the country’s foreign minister told Rudaw on Friday while attending the annual United Nations summit in New York City.
Rahingya people are a stateless ethnic group, mostly consisting of Muslims, which have historically resided in the Buddhist majority country of Myanmar. They have been the subject of continued persecution by the Burmese government since the 1970’s, most notoriously the 2017 violent military crackdown which forced over one million people of the ethnic group to flee to the neighboring country of Bangladesh.
“There is 1.2 million Rohingya currently, temporarily, sheltered in Bangladesh, and they are all from Myanmar,” Abul Kalam Abdul Momen, Bangladesh’s foreign minister, told Rudaw’s Roj Eli Zalla on Friday, adding that the “Myanmar government agreed to take them back. They agreed to provide safety and security… But this is the sixth year: not a single Rohingya could go back.”
Abdul Momen said that the topic is part of their agenda and they will raise the issue at the 77th UN General Assembly (UNGA), believing that the Burmese government would not take back the Rohingya people unless they are put under pressure.
“The UN should do more for the safe and dignified return to their [Rohingya’s] homeland,” he added.
Extreme weather conditions, including heavy rainfall and the possibility of flood, are typical characteristics of Bangladesh’s monsoon season, which lasts from June to October, causing disastrous large-scale damages.
The foreign minister stated that due to fear of landslides, the Bangladeshi government has allocated 350 million dollars towards relocating 100,000 Rohingya people from the congested areas that they currently reside in, to the Bhashan Char Island in the Bay of Bengal.
Bangladesh has raised the issue of the Rohingya people before the UNGA every year since 2017, in hopes of bringing an end to the prolonged crisis.
Rahingya people are a stateless ethnic group, mostly consisting of Muslims, which have historically resided in the Buddhist majority country of Myanmar. They have been the subject of continued persecution by the Burmese government since the 1970’s, most notoriously the 2017 violent military crackdown which forced over one million people of the ethnic group to flee to the neighboring country of Bangladesh.
“There is 1.2 million Rohingya currently, temporarily, sheltered in Bangladesh, and they are all from Myanmar,” Abul Kalam Abdul Momen, Bangladesh’s foreign minister, told Rudaw’s Roj Eli Zalla on Friday, adding that the “Myanmar government agreed to take them back. They agreed to provide safety and security… But this is the sixth year: not a single Rohingya could go back.”
Abdul Momen said that the topic is part of their agenda and they will raise the issue at the 77th UN General Assembly (UNGA), believing that the Burmese government would not take back the Rohingya people unless they are put under pressure.
“The UN should do more for the safe and dignified return to their [Rohingya’s] homeland,” he added.
Extreme weather conditions, including heavy rainfall and the possibility of flood, are typical characteristics of Bangladesh’s monsoon season, which lasts from June to October, causing disastrous large-scale damages.
The foreign minister stated that due to fear of landslides, the Bangladeshi government has allocated 350 million dollars towards relocating 100,000 Rohingya people from the congested areas that they currently reside in, to the Bhashan Char Island in the Bay of Bengal.
Bangladesh has raised the issue of the Rohingya people before the UNGA every year since 2017, in hopes of bringing an end to the prolonged crisis.