KUANTAN: After previous setbacks, Asean is coordinating
efforts to send home one million Rohingya Muslims who are currently seeking
shelter in Bangladesh by early next year.
Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said a team of
Asean foreign ministers, led by Singapore Foreign Minister Dr Vivian
Balakrishnan, will be in Myanmar at the end of this month to hold talks on
measures that will be implemented to bring the refugees back to Myanmar safely.
He said although one million Rohingya refugees is a huge
number, once Asean puts its plans into motion, it will mark the first step
towards ensuring that all of them return to Rakhine, Myanmar.
“Vivian will lead the team as the Asean chairman in 2018
along with Thailand’s foreign minister (who will assume the Asean chairmanship
next year) together with other professionals will be in Mynmar to look into the
repatriation process... .they will discuss with the Myanmar and Bangladeshi
governments.
“Our target is early next year as soon as the monsoon
season ends. The process has to begin in early 2019....I am not sure how fast
we can complete it but that is secondary as the priority is to ensure the
process takes-off or else the problem will never be solved.
“This is nothing new as efforts had been done in the past
(to bring home the Rohingya Muslims) but it never materialised,” he told
reporters after opening a workshop on strengthening professionalism for Bahasa
Melayu teachers here on Monday.
Saifuddin said the safety of the Rohingya refugees have
been always a major concern as there were some who tried to return from
Bangladesh but were caught, tortured and imprisoned.
“Upon completing the repatriation efforts, maybe a
special team can be stationed in Myanmar to monitor the situation on the ground
so that the refugees who have returned can live in peace and know that they are
safe,” he said, adding that the matter (special team) will be decided later.
Saifuddin was earlier asked to comment on Defence
Minister Mohamad Sabu’s statement on Sunday that Myanmar could not regard the
Rohingya ethnic issue as merely a domestic problem because Malaysia is also
subjected to a spillover effect, with more than 100,000 Rohingya refugees in
Malaysia.
Meanwhile Saifuddin stressed that the money used for
Rohingya children’s education in Malaysia was not from the government’s coffers
but from non-governmental organisations which operate the education centres.
“To date, five NGOs have started offering education for
Rohingya children. The funds were mostly contributions from international
bodies. For example, we have Qatar Foundation which promised assistance and we
are also looking at ways to secure more funds for education purposes.
“Previously there was an attempt to offer jobs to 300
Rohingya refugees in the country but the programme was unsuccessful so the
Human Resources Ministry is now in the midst of looking into other measures to
assist them to find jobs,” he said.
Source:
