×
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Bangladesh wants Myanmar to take back Rohingyas through joint verification

Last Updated 21 September 2017, 20:42 IST
Dhaka wants Nay Pyi Daw to implement the Kofi Annan panel’s report and launch a “joint verification” to repatriate the Rohingyas, who fled violence in Myanmar and took refuge in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to India, Syed Muazzem Ali, said Myanmar must implement the recommendations of the advisory commission on Rakhine State, which was headed by former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan.

“The Kofi Annan commission was instituted by the Myanmar government. The panel has done a realistic study...One of its recommendations is a joint verification process by authorities of Myanmar and Bangladesh under the supervision of United Nations High Commission for Refugees for repatriation of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar,” Ali told DH on Thursday, adding: “We support it”.

The latest exodus of Rohingyas from the Rakhine state in western Myanmar started after the country’s armed forces launched an offensive in response to attacks on security posts by the militants. With nearly 400 of them killed and over a hundred villages burnt; nearly 4,00,000 Rohingyas, including a large number of women and children, had to take refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Almost an equal number of Rohingyas had previously taken refuge in Bangladesh after escaping earlier waves of violence against them in Myanmar. The latest exodus almost doubled the number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, thus putting a huge burden on Dhaka.

“We are giving shelter to them out of humanitarian consideration and we believe that we will be able to repatriate them at the earliest possible opportunity,” said Dhaka’s envoy to New Delhi.

Nay Pyi Daw has since long been denying full citizenship rights to Rohingya, although they have been living at the Rakhine state of the country for centuries.
ADVERTISEMENT
(Published 21 September 2017, 20:42 IST)

Follow us on

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT