DHAKA, SEPT 9 – Dhaka reiterated its statement yesterday that it cannot accommodate any new influx of Rohingya refugees and urged countries and organizations recommending further intakes to share the burden themselves, according to Bangladeshi media.
“We have explained to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that it is not possible for us to accept more Rohingya,” Foreign Adviser Md Touhid Hossain told reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here on Sunday, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) reported ).
He said the UNHCR had asked Bangladesh to protect the new migrants, which the government had flatly refused. Hossain said Bangladesh has provided more support than expected, hosting 1.2 million Rohingya on humanitarian grounds.
“Those who come to us with advice or those who want to advise us – let them take the Rohingya,” he said.
The adviser also said that the government is working to prevent the further influx of Rohingya refugees as much as possible, although closing the border with Myanmar completely remains a challenge.
On September 3, Hossain said about 8,000 Rohingya had recently entered Bangladesh, fleeing armed conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Hossain said Bangladesh’s border with Myanmar had been closed but acknowledged the difficulty of fully controlling the border.
Since August 25, 2017, Bangladesh has hosted more than a million Rohingya forcibly displaced to Cox’s Bazar and most of them arrived there after a crackdown by the Myanmar military, which the United Nations (UN) has dubbed a ‘textbook example’ ethnic cleansing’ and other human rights groups call it genocide.
In the last seven years, not a single Rohingya refugee has returned to their homeland. Myanmar has agreed to accept the return of the Rohingya, but repatriation attempts have failed twice because of the Rohingya’s concerns about their safety and security in Rakhine State. – Named
