Bangladesh will urge the United Nations and the international community to find a “creative solution” to the Rohingya crisis as soon as possible and relieve Dhaka of the problems when UN Secretary-General António Guterres visits the country next week.
He, along with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, will be coming to Dhaka on Jul 1. UN High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi is also part of his entourage, but he will arrive a day earlier.
They are scheduled to travel Cox’s Bazar on Monday to see the Rohingya, who fled from Rakhine to save themselves from atrocities by Myanmar military.
A foreign ministry official said that the UN chief Guterres is well-briefed over the Rohingya situation as he served as the head of the UNHCR and visited Bangladesh in 2008.
“We will pass on a message to him that Bangladesh should not be penalised for what it did for the sake of humanity,” he said.
Unlike many countries, including some European ones, Bangladesh opened its border to provide shelter to these people who are subject to persecution in their own country.
Bangladesh is facing huge problems by giving shelter to Rohingyas and mere providing assistance will not help the country, the official said.
“We don’t want assistance, rather we want a political solution so that they can go back and for that, the international community must find a creative solution and think out of the box,” he said.
If the international community feels that the Rohingyas are now safe and it should continue in perpetuity, it would be an injustice to Bangladesh, said another official.
“If the Rohingya problem is not solved and the perpetrators go unpunished, these types of atrocities will not happen only in Myanmar, but also in other parts of the world,” he feared.
Guterres will call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during his visit and Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali will accompany him in his Cox’s Bazar trip.
Another foreign ministry official said that the UN secretary-general will be not going to Myanmar, apparently sending a message that he is not happy with them.
“It is expected that when he goes back to New York, he would appraise the UN Security Council about his visit,” he said.
Russia is the current chair of the UNSC and Sweden would become the chair in July.
“The new chair is likely to convene a meeting to discuss Rohingya issue late July,” he said.
UN Special Envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener has already visited Myanmar and is scheduled to travel Bangladesh in mid-July.
The official said that Burgener would share her experience with the Security Council when it would discuss the Rohingya issue.