A Myanmar minister will visit Cox’s Bazar to see the plight of Rohingyas living in refugee camps in the southeastern district, says Bangladesh Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque.
Speaking at a seminar in Dhaka on Monday, he said, “One of the [Myanmar] ministers will be visiting Bangladesh this month and he has also agreed to go down to Cox’s Bazar and we are planning to take him to Naikhanggchari.”
The seminar titled ‘Rohingya Refugee Crisis’ was organised by the Genocide Studies department of the Dhaka University.
Foreign Secretary Haque said there are nearly 5,000 Rohingyas living on the zero line, who were being threatened and abused, but they did not enter Bangladesh.
“During our negotiation with Myanmar, we suggested as they did not cross over and they are still legally in Myanmar territory, can the Myanmar government encourage them to go back and they agreed,” he said.
He said a joint commission comprised of officials from both countries recently visited the zero line to convince them to go back because most of their houses were yet to be burnt. “We are trying to develop a mechanism to able to send them back from zero line but they are still there.”
In response to a query on relocating the Rohingya refugees, he said the government has multiple options and one of those is Bhashanchar.
“We are looking at all kind of options. Now at one stage you said it is a very congested place. The second step, you said you cannot relocate them, you have to keep them here. Then the other option is to depopulate Cox’s Bazar. Is that something the international community wants to see? So there is no alternative to live side by side,” he said.
When Bhashanchar would be viable and livable, then the government would arrange to fly representatives of the international community to see the situation, he said.
Bhasan Char is a shoal in the southeastern coastal district of Noakhali.
Also known as Thengar Char, it is 10,000 acres at high tide and 15,000 acres at low tide. No-one lives on the island, which is mostly used for cattle grazing.
It takes two hours by a motor boat to reach the island from the nearest human inhabitation at Noakhali's Hatia island, which is at least 18 kilometres away.
In response to a question on India’s role, the foreign secretary said, “Every country has its own priorities and compulsion.”
He, however, said Dhaka is comfortable with the recent responses from Delhi.
Former Indian foreign secretary S Jaisangkar visited Myanmar’s northern Rakhine recently and signed an arrangement to build some houses there, which is a part of the peaceful relocation process.
The new Indian foreign secretary will be coming to Dhaka this month, when “transparent and receptive discussions” will be opened with him, said Haque.
