UN top officials urged to pursue Myanmar for safe zone
Bangladesh today reiterated its urge to the United Nations (UN) to pursue with Myanmar for creating a safe zone inside Rakhine so that forcefully displaced Rohingyas can feel secured to go back to their motherland.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam made the urge while visiting heads of three UN agencies held a meeting with him at the foreign affairs ministry here.
The three top UN officials are Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Vitorino, Director General of International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Lowcock, Head of United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Emergency Relief Coordinator.
They are currently on a joint visit to Bangladesh. The delegation is scheduled to pay a visit to Cox’s Bazar Rohingya camps on 25-26 April 2019.
During the meeting the state minister urged the UN officials to put further efforts to create a conducive environment in Northern Rakhine and also enhance the engagement with Myanmar in building schools, hospitals, mosques and other basic structures for the Rohingyas in their place of return.
Shahriar expressed dissatisfaction at the failure of Myanmar to build confidence among the Rohingyas to return to their homeland.
He informed the delegation that the government of Bangladesh has already developed Bhasan Char island to accommodate 1,00,000 Rohingyas.
Relocating the Rohingyas to Bhasan Char will help address the congestion problem in the camps in Cox’s Bazar, the state minister observed.
The delegation updated the state minister about the recent development of work of UN agencies in the Northern Rakhine of Myanmar.
The delegation opined, though the development is not significant, the situation is better than before.
The top UN officials also informed about the funding status for implementing the Joint Response Plan-2019.
The delegation commended Bangladesh’s efforts towards addressing the basic needs of the Rohingyas and said Bangladesh has dealt with the Rohingya issue in an exemplary way. They said that the visit is intended to express solidarity to Bangladesh.
