Myanmar not working as per commitment on Rohingya repatriation: PM

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina said that Myanmar was not working as per its commitment with Bangladesh on the repatriation of their Rohingya nationals to their homeland.
‘We held talks and signed agreements with Myanmar on the repatriation of Rohingyas. The Myanmar government, however, is not living up to its commitments,’ she said.
The prime minister made the remarks when Dr Paul Connet and Ellen Connet, the recipients of Friends of Bangladesh’s Liberation War Honour, paid a courtesy call on her at her Jatiya Sangsad Office in Dhaka on Monday evening.
After the meeting, prime minister’s press secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters.
Referring to the influx of over 11 lakh Rohingyas into Cox’s Bazar, the prime minister said that they outnumbered the local residents.
In this connection, Hasina said that her government was developing an island named Bhashanchar in Noakhali to give temporary shelter to the forcibly displaced Rohingyas.
‘We’re developing the island with all facilities so that the Rohingyas can live on the island under better circumstances and 25,000 Rohingya families could be shifted there at this moment,’ she said.
The prime minister recalled that over one crore Bangladeshi refugees took shelter in neighbouring India during the 1971 liberation war.
Hasina also remembered that her younger sister Sheikh Rehana and she had to live a refugee life after the assassination of founder president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.
At the meeting, Paul Connet and Mrs Connet, the United States nationals, highly appreciated prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s initiative to give shelter to a huge number of Rohingyas in Bangladesh and apprised her of their visit to Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar.
They also commended the Bangladesh government for making excellent arrangements on amenities, including clean drinking water and sanitation system, for the Rohingyas at the camps.
‘The arrangements made by your government for the Rohingyas are excellent and we’re very much impressed by them,’ they told her.
Paul Connet and Mrs Connet said that they were planning to hold a concert in the US and the proceeds earned from it will be donated to the UNHCR for the Rohingya people.
Paul Connet recalled that he had entered Bangladesh first in October in 1971 with freedom fighters and had been impressed to see the green and scenic beauty of the country.
The prime minister expressed her profound appreciation for their love and solidarity with the people of Bangladesh during the liberation war.
Liberation war affairs minister AKM Mozammel Haque, ministry secretary SM Arifur-Rahman and trustee of the Liberation War Museum Mafidul Haque were present on the occasion.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net