Staff Reporter :
Visiting UN Special Advisor to Secretary-General Ghassan Salame on Tuesday said if the citizenships of Rohingya people are ensured by the Myanmar government the crisis created in Rakhine State would go away.
“We are here to observe the overall situation now prevailing at Rohingya slums in different places of Cox’s Bazar and its adjacent areas after Myanmar security forces’ crackdown on them in October last year,” he told journalists after a view-exchange meeting with civil society members at Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies in the city yesterday.
Replying to a query whether Rohingya people are being repressed and continue to trespass into Bangladesh due to religious reason, Ghassan Salame said they (Rohingya) did not flee the Muslim-majority northern part of Rakhine to Bangladesh not only religious reason.
“Apart from religious reason, questions relating to their (Rohingya) rights, citizenship as well as livelihood are also responsible to cross the border. So the main work is to ensure their citizenship by the Myanmar government,” he said.
Earlier in the morning the visiting three-member delegation comprising Myanmar National Human Rights Commission Chairman U Win Mra, Core Member and Founder of Religions for Peace in Myanmar U Aye Lwin and former Lebanese Minister of Culture and UN Special Advisor to Secretary-General Ghassan Salame also a held meeting with the Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali.
Later, the Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali told the Parliament that various diplomatic steps like bilateral, regional and multilateral have been taken to rehabilitate the Rohingya people.
“During the all bilateral meetings with Myanmar we have strongly raised our voice and placed demands to take back Rohingya from Bangladesh,” he said while replying to a question raised by ruling Awami League lawmaker Pinu Khan.
On Monday, the three-member delegation visited two unregistered Rohingya slums in Cox’s Bazar’s Ukhia and Teknaf. They visited Paschim Balukhali Rohingya slum in Palongkhali Union of Ukhia Upazila and Leda slum in Hnila Union of Teknaf Upazila.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh has resurrected a plan to relocate thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar’s northwestern Rakhine State to a island in the Bay of Bengal to prevent them from “intermingling” with Bangladeshi citizens.
The United Nations says about 65,000 people have fled the Muslim-majority northern part of Rakhine to Bangladesh since attacks that killed nine Myanmar border police on October 9, sparking a heavy-handed security response in which scores were killed, according to agency report.
Bangladesh first proposed the idea of sending the Rohingya to Thengar Char, which floods at high tide, in 2015, prompting anger among rights groups.
A notice dated January 26 and posted on the website of the Bangladesh government’s cabinet says several committees had been formed to look at the influx of Rohingya Muslims, which the country fears could lead to law and order issues as they mix with local residents.
Dhaka was preparing a list of the people who would be temporarily moved to Thengar Char before being sent back to Myanmar, the notice said.
A senior official at Bangladesh’s Home Ministry said the process to shift the Rohingya to the island would take time and that “if that place is not livable, the government will make it livable”.
Hundreds were killed in communal clashes in Rakhine in 2012, exposing a lack of oversight of the military by the administration of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
Meanwhile, US Ambassador in Dhaka Marcia Bernicat on Tuesday said that her country is trying its level best to give a permanent solution to Rohingya refugee crisis and they are optimistic about it.
“We have directly talked to the victims about different issues and have learnt a lot of things from them,” She told local journalists after visiting different registered and unregistered refugee camps in Teknaf and Ukhia upazilas of Cox’s Bazar. She was leading a seven-member entourage during the visit.
Visiting UN Special Advisor to Secretary-General Ghassan Salame on Tuesday said if the citizenships of Rohingya people are ensured by the Myanmar government the crisis created in Rakhine State would go away.
“We are here to observe the overall situation now prevailing at Rohingya slums in different places of Cox’s Bazar and its adjacent areas after Myanmar security forces’ crackdown on them in October last year,” he told journalists after a view-exchange meeting with civil society members at Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies in the city yesterday.
Replying to a query whether Rohingya people are being repressed and continue to trespass into Bangladesh due to religious reason, Ghassan Salame said they (Rohingya) did not flee the Muslim-majority northern part of Rakhine to Bangladesh not only religious reason.
“Apart from religious reason, questions relating to their (Rohingya) rights, citizenship as well as livelihood are also responsible to cross the border. So the main work is to ensure their citizenship by the Myanmar government,” he said.
Earlier in the morning the visiting three-member delegation comprising Myanmar National Human Rights Commission Chairman U Win Mra, Core Member and Founder of Religions for Peace in Myanmar U Aye Lwin and former Lebanese Minister of Culture and UN Special Advisor to Secretary-General Ghassan Salame also a held meeting with the Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali.
Later, the Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali told the Parliament that various diplomatic steps like bilateral, regional and multilateral have been taken to rehabilitate the Rohingya people.
“During the all bilateral meetings with Myanmar we have strongly raised our voice and placed demands to take back Rohingya from Bangladesh,” he said while replying to a question raised by ruling Awami League lawmaker Pinu Khan.
On Monday, the three-member delegation visited two unregistered Rohingya slums in Cox’s Bazar’s Ukhia and Teknaf. They visited Paschim Balukhali Rohingya slum in Palongkhali Union of Ukhia Upazila and Leda slum in Hnila Union of Teknaf Upazila.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh has resurrected a plan to relocate thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar’s northwestern Rakhine State to a island in the Bay of Bengal to prevent them from “intermingling” with Bangladeshi citizens.
The United Nations says about 65,000 people have fled the Muslim-majority northern part of Rakhine to Bangladesh since attacks that killed nine Myanmar border police on October 9, sparking a heavy-handed security response in which scores were killed, according to agency report.
Bangladesh first proposed the idea of sending the Rohingya to Thengar Char, which floods at high tide, in 2015, prompting anger among rights groups.
A notice dated January 26 and posted on the website of the Bangladesh government’s cabinet says several committees had been formed to look at the influx of Rohingya Muslims, which the country fears could lead to law and order issues as they mix with local residents.
Dhaka was preparing a list of the people who would be temporarily moved to Thengar Char before being sent back to Myanmar, the notice said.
A senior official at Bangladesh’s Home Ministry said the process to shift the Rohingya to the island would take time and that “if that place is not livable, the government will make it livable”.
Hundreds were killed in communal clashes in Rakhine in 2012, exposing a lack of oversight of the military by the administration of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
Meanwhile, US Ambassador in Dhaka Marcia Bernicat on Tuesday said that her country is trying its level best to give a permanent solution to Rohingya refugee crisis and they are optimistic about it.
“We have directly talked to the victims about different issues and have learnt a lot of things from them,” She told local journalists after visiting different registered and unregistered refugee camps in Teknaf and Ukhia upazilas of Cox’s Bazar. She was leading a seven-member entourage during the visit.
