Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has said that the government will never force Rohingyas to go to Bhashanchar from Cox’s Bazar.
“Our general principle is not to force in any issues (to Rohingyas),” he said while interacting with the executive committee members of the Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) at his office on Tuesday.
Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque, DCAB President Raheed Ejaz and General Secretary Nurul Islam Hasib were also present.
The government has developed Bhashanchar, a river island, to relocate about
100,000 Rohingyas from the crowded camps in Cox’s Bazar where over 1 million Myanmar nationals took shelter fleeing ethnic cleaning in the Rakhine State.
“Our Prime Minister does want to send anybody forcefully, ” the foreign minister said, adding that a technical team of the UN is assessing the condition of taking them to the Bhashanchar. He said the place had been developed considering the weather forecast. “There was a forecast of heavy rains and landslides, so our Prime Minister out of sympathy took the decision to develop the place so that some of them can be relocated,” he said. “But this is not solution to the problem. Only solution is to send them back to their place.”
He said, the return will be voluntary, but the government will take action if anyone stands in the way of their return, indicating NGOs activity.
The government has canceled the activities of 41 NGOs inside the camps following the August 22 botched attempt.
The DCAB Executive Committee met the foreign minister as part of the annual call on.
DCAB Joint Secretary Israt Jahan Urmi, Treasurer Mahadi Hasan Talukder, and executive committee members Angur Nahar Monty, Touhidur Rahman, and Khurram Zaman were also present at the meeting.
