Further delay in Rohingya repatriation may put entire region at risk: MOFA

News Desk

Further delays in commencing safe, voluntary and sustainable repatriation of Rohingyas and lack of humanitarian support may put the entire region at risk, the foreign ministry has said.

The international community should continue to provide necessary humanitarian support till their sustainable repatriation, the ministry said on Friday, which marks the sixth anniversary of a crackdown on Rohingyas by Myanmar’s military forces on August 25, 2017.

“We have stepped into the seventh year of the Rohingya crisis without seeing any solution. The socioeconomic, demographic and environmental cost of sheltering more than 1.2 million Rohingyas for such a long time is pushing Bangladesh to the limit.

“These forcibly displaced people have aspirations and rights to return to their homeland in a safe and sustainable manner,” read a foreign ministry statement.

“It is the collective responsibility of the international community to find a durable solution to this crisis in its place of origin in Myanmar.

“Rohingyas are developing portable skills, working as volunteers and their children are attending learning facilities in Myanmar language following Myanmar curriculum in camps in Bangladesh so that they can retain their cultural identity and can smoothly reintegrate into Rakhine society upon return.

“Drastic reduction of humanitarian assistance for this persecuted population, which is growing with around 30,000 newborns every year inside the camps, is compounding the crisis,” the foreign ministry said.

Rohingyas, a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar, fled violence in their homeland at a staggering rate in 2017 – and the numbers keep growing.

On August 25, 2017, violence erupted in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, forcing over 742,000 Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh.