Dhaka, March 07 (bdnews24.com)—Foreign minister Dipu Moni has requested the UN refugee agency to resume the repatriation process of "all Myanmar refugees in the soonest possible time", rejecting all options for their rehabilitation in Bangladesh.The minister made the call Sunday as newly appointed representative in Bangladesh of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Steven Craig Sanders, presented his credential to the minister at her office.
Dipu Moni's call comes in the wake of international media reports on the plight of the Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh. Some alleged human rights violations by Bangladesh authorities and urged the government to allow their integration with the local people.
"She (Dipu Moni) put emphasis on resuming the repatriation process at the soonest possible," said a foreign ministry press statement on the meeting.
The foreign minister also urged the UNHCR to work for improving the conditions in Myanmar's northern Rakhain state of the Muslim minority Rohingyas, who face persecution and hard conditions in their homeland, to discourage entry into Bangladesh.
She mentioned that the UNHCR could work to establish schools, hospitals and other institutions necessary for their socioeconomic development.
"She reiterated Bangladesh's position on the issue of Myanmar refugees that full repatriation of the refugees, now living in two camps in Nayapara and Kutupalong, remained the only viable solution to this protracted problem," said the foreign ministry statement.
"She ruled out any other option in this regard," it added.
Dipu Moni said Myanmar authorities had already agreed to take back all refugees confirmed to be their nationals.
Bangladesh has been hosting thousands of Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar district bordering Myanmar for years.
An estimated 300,000 Rogingya refugees took shelter in 1991-92 as the Myanmar military launched a massive crackdown on the Muslim minority.
Bangladesh and Myanmar, with the help of the UNHCR, repatriated most of the refugees in successive years.
But over 28,000 refugees have refused to return to their homestead either fearing persecution or starvation there. The residual refugees are now housed at Nayapara and Kutupalong camps maintained by the UNHCR.
The Bangladesh government has since alleged that most of the previously-repatriated Rohingya refugees have also intruded back into Bangladesh.
Some western countries have been lobbying the Bangladesh government to recognise these illegal Myanmar nationals as refugees or to integrate them with the locals.
Dhaka has rejected the western proposal saying such decisions will open a floodgate of fresh refugees into Bangladesh.
The foreign minister on Sunday said the recent international media reports referring to alleged rights abuses of undocumented Myanmar nationals living in Bangladesh were "baseless and malicious".
"Such unhelpful reports must be stopped in the interest of all," the foreign ministry statement quoted.
Source :http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=155274&cid=2
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