PM asks Japan to persuade Myanmar to take back Rohingyas

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday renewed her call to the international community, including Japan, to persuade Myanmar to take back their Rohingya nationals from Bangladesh.

“The Rohingyas must return and for this, the global community will have to persuade Myanmar to take them back from Bangladesh,” she told Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono, who paid a courtesy call on her at her official Ganabhaban residence in the city in the afternoon.

After the meeting, the prime minister’s press secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed newsmen, reports BSS.

The premier told Taro Kono a huge number of Rohingyas had fled to Bangladesh since August last year [2017] and they outnumbered the local people in Cox’s Bazar district causing various problems.

She said local people of Cox’s Bazar are suffering a lot as their arable land was occupied by the Rohingyas. “So, we are also helping the local people,” she said.

Referring to signing of a deal with Myanmar on the Rohingya repatriation, Sheikh Hasina said though Naypyidaw has agreed to take back the Rohingyas, they do not take any action in this regard. “We’re continuing discussion with Myanmar for the Rohingya repatriation,” she said.

The premier said the international organisations’ staff and volunteers working in Cox’s Bazar for mitigating the sufferings of the Rohingyas could also help them (Rohingyas) in Myanmar after their repatriation.

The Japanese foreign minister told Sheikh Hasina that he had talks with Myanmar president Win Myint and state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi on the Rohingya issue during his recent tour to Myanmar.

He said the Myanmar leaders informed him that they had inked an MoU on the Rohingya repatriation. “I’ve asked them to speed up the activities for constructing houses and schools so that Rohingyas can live in Rakhaine state in a better condition on their return from Bangladesh,” he said.

Taro Kono said he also asked the Myanmar authorities to send their teams to Bangladesh to visit the refugee camps, talk to Bangladesh authorities and take back the Rohingyas.