Dhaka reaffirmed today (Sept 8) its firm stance against accepting any additional influx of Rohingya refugees, urging nations and organizations advocating for further intake to share the responsibility themselves.

"We have made it clear to the UNHCR that it is impossible for us to accommodate more Rohingyas," said Foreign Adviser Md Touhid Hossain during a press briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He emphasized that Bangladesh has already exceeded expectations by sheltering 1.2 million Rohingya on humanitarian grounds, and despite the UN Refugee Agency's recent request to host new arrivals, the government has decisively declined.

"Those who come to us with advice or those who want to advise us – let them take the Rohingyas," he said.

The Adviser also mentioned that the government is working to prevent further Rohingya entries where possible, though sealing the border with Myanmar completely remains a challenge.

On September 3, Hossain noted that around 8,000 Rohingya had recently entered Bangladesh, fleeing armed conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Hossain noted that the border with Myanmar has been sealed, but acknowledged the difficulty of completely securing the frontier.

Since August 25 in 2017, Bangladesh has been hosting over million forcefully displaced Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar district and most of them arrived there after a military crackdown by Myanmar, which the UN called a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" and other rights groups dubbed it as "genocide".
 
In the last seven years, not a single Rohingya went back home.

Myanmar agreed to take them back, but repatriation attempts failed twice due to trust deficit among the Rohingyas about their safety and security in Rakhine state.

BDST: 1620 HRS, SEPT 08, 2024
MN/SMS