By BDNews24
Bangladesh is
focusing on the “sustainable” return of Rohingyas to Myanmar following a
“significant” UN deal.
Foreign Minister AH
Mahmood Ali’s visit to Myanmar was to understand the progress of arranging
physical infrastructure and the psychological aspect of the local community
about taking Rohingyas back, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar
Alam told reporters at his office on Monday.
“From that view,
physical structure progressed a lot.”
Foreign Secretary Md
Shahidul Haque who accompanied the foreign minister during the visit to the
Rakhine State on Aug 11 said at a separate event in Dhaka that Myanmar wants to
take Rohingyas back.
“From locals to the
government level, we heard ‘we want to bring them back’. This is something we
did not hear before,” he told reporters before joining a seminar at Dhaka
University.
The decades-old
Rohingya crisis took an appalling turn last year on Aug 25 when hundreds of
thousands of them started fleeing the Rakhine State following a military
crackdown.
Over 700,000 took
shelter since then, taking the number of Rohingyas in Bangladesh to about 1.1
million.
State Minister
Shahriar Alam said it’s a “deeply rooted” crisis and nobody can expect a quick
solution.
“We don’t want to
send out 5,000 or 10,000 in a hurry. We want a sustainable return,” he said as
many of the Rohingyas living in Cox’s Bazar camps have come back after
repatriation.”
“The prime minister
is the only leader in the world who took charge of 1.1 million Rohingyas.
Others joined her later,” Alam said. “So it’s our responsibility to make it
sustainable”.
He said Myanmar’s
deal with the UN agencies is a “significant process” in the last two months.
“All now realised
that this should be resolved and Myanmar has to do that. There is no
disagreement in this regard,” he said.
The Bangladesh
delegation visited Kain Gyi village inhabited by the ethnic Rakhine and Moro
people on Saturday as part of the visit to Myanmar to see their preparations to
take back Rohingyas.
The delegation was
taken to the border on the Myanmar side where few thousand displaced Myanmar
nationals have been staying on the border.
They also visited
reception centres at Taung Pyo Let Yar and Nga Khu Ya and the transit camp at
Hla Poe Kaung that can accommodate 30,000 people.
At Shwe Zar village
they saw around 148 prefabricated houses for returnees are being built with
assistance from the government of India.
They visited Pan Taw
Pyin village from where most of the 15,000 inhabitants fled to Bangladesh.
Foreign Minister Ali
was informed that remaining Muslims and peoples of Buddhist and Hindu faith are
currently living there.
Myanmar has built 22
houses for internally displaced people and around 50 more houses for the
returnees in the village.
Asked when the
repatriation can begin, Foreign Secretary Haque said this kind of repatriation
is “very complex and difficult”.
“This never happens
swiftly.”
Haque said Myanmar
authorities showed them the progress they made so far. They also informed the
Bangladesh side that they will start the process of implementing the Kofi Annan
Commission report that recommended Myanmar citizenship of the stateless
Rohingyas.