Home Adviser for international pressure on Myanmar for Rohingya repatriation

Home Advisor Lt. Gen. Md. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury (Retd.) has urged the international community to put pressure on Myanmar to repatriate Rohingya refugees, who are Myanmar citizens who were forcibly expelled.
 
“Exert more international influence on Myanmar for repatriation of Rohingya refugees,” he requested the international community when a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) led by Filippo Grandi paid a courtesy call on him at the ministry office at Bangladesh Secretariat here this afternoon.
 
According to a home ministry press release, the meeting focused on a number of topics, including the repatriation of Rohingya to Myanmar, the security and economic issues they caused, their relocation to Bhashan Char, and issues resulting from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) suspension of financial assistance.

The adviser welcomed the High Commissioner and stated that, for humanitarian reasons, Bangladesh has been providing long-term shelter to 1.3 million Rohingya refugees.

“As Bangladesh is a densely populated country, social and economic problems have increased in the Rohingya-populated areas and they are involved in various criminal activities. So, the national security as well as the regional security are being disrupted,” he said.
 
Thanking the adviser for Bangladesh’s humanitarian and generous approach towards Rohingya, the UN High Commissioner said that the Rohingya refugees have been forced to seek refuge in Bangladesh after being persecuted and displaced in their own country, Myanmar. 

In this context, the High Commission promised to keep helping Bangladesh repatriate Rohingya refugees.
Jahangir warned that the Rohingyas might not be repatriated by Myanmar’s future government if they continue to provide shelter.

noting that as the Rohingyas are Myanmar citizens, it is primarily their obligation to repatriate them.

The Home Adviser said, “If the United States stops assisting the Rohingyas through USAID, then I request the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to provide funds for the Rohingyas through donor agencies and other development partners.” 
 
UNHCR Country Representative Sumbul Rizvi, UNHCR Bangladesh Office Senior External Relations Officer Romain Desclous, UNHCR Director of the Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau Hai Kyung Jun, and senior Ministry of Home Affairs officials attended the meeting.