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Bangladesh calls for pressure on Myanmar to take back Rohingya refugees

Wednesday, 18 April 2018 8:57 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 18 April 2018 9:00 AM ]

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visits a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, near Myanmar’s border. (File photo)

Bangladesh has urged the international community to put more pressure on Myanmar’s government so that it takes back the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees who have fled to Bangladesh to save their lives amid deadly government-sponsored violence in Myanmar.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Tuesday that Myanmar “says they are ready to take back the Rohingya, but they are not taking the initiative.”

She told an audience in London that the international community “needs to put more pressure on Myanmar so that they take back their own people and ensure their security.”

Hasina said Dhaka had submitted the names of 8,000 Rohingya families to Myanmar for repatriation, but the Myanmarese government had so far failed to take them back.

The United Nations (UN) says nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar’s Rakhine State since August 2017, to escape a brutal military crackdown, which has been described by the UN as “ethnic cleansing.”

Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in January to complete a voluntary repatriation of the refugees in two years. The repatriation, however, was delayed due to a lack of preparation as well as protests staged by Rohingya refugees against the plan to send them back to Myanmar while conditions were not safe for their return.

Rohingya Muslim refugees wait to be called to receive food at a camp in Bangladesh on November 28, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The Bangladeshi prime minister further disputed an assertion by Myanmar that it had repatriated five members of a Rohingya family from Bangladesh. She explained that those refugees were living in the no man’s land between the two countries and not in Bangladeshi territory.

“They were living in the borderlands, with some of their family members in their camps. Maybe (Myanmar) wants to show the world they are taking them back. It’s a good sign. If they want, then why only one family?” Hasina said.

The refugees are living in overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar, and Bangladesh is keen for them to return home soon, especially with the oncoming monsoon season, which is expected to cause major devastation at the site or spread waterborne diseases.

Rohingya Muslims have lived in Myanmar for generations but are denied citizenship and are branded illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, which likewise denies them citizenship.

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