bdnews24.com :
Sri Lanka has made it clear that it will not accept any Rohingyas as refugees.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickrmesinghe said on Friday that refugees coming to a country like Sri Lanka, far away from their native Myanmar, evoke suspicions of an ‘organised immigration racket’.
“A citizen of another country can enter Sri Lanka by following the immigration procedures,” he said replying to a query at the government parliamentary group’s meeting.
“Rohingya refugees of Myanmar can easily seek refuge in neighboring
Bangladesh or Thailand.” But their arrivals in Sri Lanka indicate that it is an organised effort. The government will not permit such maneuverings, he said.
There are a few Rohingyas in Sri Lanka who had come by boat and by air following communal disturbances in Myanmar in 2012, but there has been no recent influx.
But what the prime minister did not admit was the fact that there is an undercurrent of anti-Muslim sentiment among the majority Sinhalese Buddhist community in Sri Lanka which will not permit settlement of Rohingya Muslims in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has made it clear that it will not accept any Rohingyas as refugees.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickrmesinghe said on Friday that refugees coming to a country like Sri Lanka, far away from their native Myanmar, evoke suspicions of an ‘organised immigration racket’.
“A citizen of another country can enter Sri Lanka by following the immigration procedures,” he said replying to a query at the government parliamentary group’s meeting.
“Rohingya refugees of Myanmar can easily seek refuge in neighboring
Bangladesh or Thailand.” But their arrivals in Sri Lanka indicate that it is an organised effort. The government will not permit such maneuverings, he said.
There are a few Rohingyas in Sri Lanka who had come by boat and by air following communal disturbances in Myanmar in 2012, but there has been no recent influx.
But what the prime minister did not admit was the fact that there is an undercurrent of anti-Muslim sentiment among the majority Sinhalese Buddhist community in Sri Lanka which will not permit settlement of Rohingya Muslims in Sri Lanka.
