Dhaka, Bangladesh: Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Dipu Moni has requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for support to resume the repatriation process of “all Burmese refugees in the soonest possible time", according to an official release of the ministry.
On March 7, the Foreign Minister urged the UNHCR to work more intensely inside Burma and to create conditions to repatriate Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh. The minister was speaking to the new Bangladesh UNHCR representative Steven Craig Sanders, after he presented his credentials to the minister at her office.
Dipu Moni's appeal comes in the wake of international media reports on the plight of Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh. Some have alleged human rights violations by Bangladesh authorities and urged the government to allow their integration with the local people.
"She (Dipu Moni) emphasized on resuming the repatriation process at the soonest possible time," said a foreign ministry press statement on the meeting.
The minister also urged the UNHCR to work for improving the conditions in Burma’s northern Rakhain state of the Muslim minority Rohingyas, who face persecution and hard conditions in their homeland, to discourage entry into Bangladesh.
She said 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 Burmese 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 Bazaar district bordering Burma for years.
An estimated 300,000 Rogingya refugees took shelter in 1991-92 as the Burmese military launched a massive crackdown on the Muslim minority.
Bangladesh and Burma, with the cooperation of the UNHCR, repatriated most of the refugees in successive years.
But over 28,000 refugees have refused to return to their homeland either fearing persecution or starvation there. The residual refugees are now housed in Nayapara and Kutupalong camp.
In December 2009, U Maung Myint, the Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister agreed to take back 9000 Rohingya refugees of the 28,000 refugees, who are living in the official camps Nayapara and Kutupalong during his trip.
The Bangladesh government has since alleged that most of the previously-repatriated Rohingya refugees have come back to Bangladesh.
Some western countries have been lobbying the Bangladesh government to recognize the illegal Burmese 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 Burmese nationals living in Bangladesh were "baseless and malicious".
"Such unhelpful reports must be stopped in the interest of all," the foreign ministry statement quoted her as saying.
