UN chief Guterres calls on international community to provide support to Rohingya refugees

Dhaka: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday called upon the international community to provide necessary financial and political support for Rohingya refugees and their host communities “to avoid humanitarian disasters” in Bangladesh, state-run BSS news agency said.

Guterres, who is on a four-day visit from March 13 to Bangladesh, was addressing a joint press briefing in Dhaka, a day after he travelled to Cox's Bazaar on “a mission of solidarity” with the Rohingya refugees.

The plight of more than 1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar remains uncertain over possible aid cuts in near future.

After his visit to Cox's Bazar in southeastern Bangladesh to see the plight of Rohingyas in the crammed makeshift camps after being evicted from their homeland in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Guterres described humanitarian aid cuts by the United States and countries in Europe to Bangladesh, where thousands of Rohingya refugees are located, as “a crime.” On Saturday. He reiterated his call to the international community to provide more support for Rohingyas to avoid humanitarian disasters in refugee camps in Bangladesh, according to the Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS).

“I strongly appeal to the international community to allow us to avoid any tragedy,” he said and called upon the international community to take greater responsibility and provide necessary financial and political support for both the refugees and their host communities.

Guterres also highlighted Bangladesh's “extraordinary generosity in responding to the Rohingya crisis,” the BSS said and quoted the UN chief as saying: “It is a testament to your enduring humanitarian spirit.” “By offering Rohingya refugees sanctuary, Bangladesh has demonstrated solidarity and human dignity, often at significant social, environmental and economic cost,” Guterres said.

The UN is fully committed to working with Bangladesh and others in finding a lasting solution to the Rohingya crisis that enables their safe, voluntary, dignified, and sustainable return to Myanmar, the BSS quoted Guterres as saying.

He said planning is also well underway by UN Member States for a High-Level Conference on the situation of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar.

“This year, I decided to come to Bangladesh to express my solidarity with Rohingya refugees and the Bangladeshi people that host them,” the UN chief said.

Foreign Adviser Touhid Hossain also spoke at the joint briefing.

Guterres was last in Cox’s Bazar in 2018.