ROHINGYA issue
No objection to large scale resettlement, says Dhaka
PM to attend UN Summit on migration, refugees Sept 19
DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT
Bangladesh will consider if third countries are willing to accept large numbers of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to resettle them in their respective countries, a senior foreign ministry official said yesterday.There are about 33,000 registered refugees from Myanmar, commonly known as Rohingyas, in refugee camps in Coxs Bazar. Our preference is repatriation to their country of origin (Myanmar). Third country resettlement is also an option. We will consider if willing countries want their resettlement in large chunks, not symbolically few hundreds, Mustafizur Rahman, Director General (United Nations wing) of the foreign ministry, told a questioner at a programme styled National Seminar on UN Summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel yesterday.
According to government officials concerned, Bangladesh nowadays discourages resettlement of small number of Rohingya refugees in the developed countries because in the past this type of resettlement encouraged more undocumented Myanmar nationals to come to Bangladesh from the bordering Rakhine State.
It is estimated that three to five lakh undocumented Myanmar nationals are living in different parts of Bangladesh, creating various types of socioeconomic problems. Mustafizur Rahman also said that the ultimate solution to the Rohingya problem is to create a conducive environment in Myanmar, the country of their origin. Bangladesh is doing its bits, fulfilling its obligations in terms of taking care of the registered refugees and undocumented Myanmar nationals, he said, detailing the steps taken by the government including a recently carried-out census.
Its no point to keep them undocumented, said Rahman, adding that documentation will be necessary when these people will eventually return to their country. He also informed that Bangladesh has been engaged with Myanmar in this regard.
Meanwhile, speakers at the programme laid emphasis on safe migration and protecting refugees in dignified manner. Migration and refugee issues are a reality of the time, so its better to devise ways to live with them, they said, adding that as long as there will be conflicts across the world, the refugee issue will persist.
The UN Summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants will be held on September 19 and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will co-chair one of the roundtables with her Swedish counterpart.
A Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, proposed by Bangladesh, will be annexed with the declaration of the Summit. After refining it through consultations, the compact will be adopted in 2018.
Another paper named Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework will also be annexed with the declaration of the Summit and it will also be adopted in 2018.
Initially, Bangladesh proposed a global compact both migration and refugee issues, but later it was decided there will be two separate papers.
The speakers said that some elements of the compact will be gone in next two years during the course of consultations and emphasised the need for vigilance on the parts of governments, migration and refugee organisations and the civil society.
Inaugurating the seminar, Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque said that migration has changed quite significantly in the past few decades with the change of geopolitical scenario. Earlier, state was primary and people were secondary. Now, state is secondary and people are primary, he said. The foreign secretary wondered as to why there is a necessity of two separate papers on migration and refugee issues. They are not separate, he said, stressing the need for a comprehensive and balanced approach to address the issues.
Present at the programme, UN Resident Coordinator Robert Watkins said, 2016 is a year of migration. This may well be the decade of migration. The seminar was addressed, among others, by Bangladesh Human Rights Commission Member Meghna Guhathakurta, Bangladesh High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Riaz Hamidullah, International Organisation of Migration (IOM) Bangladesh Mission chief Sarat Dash, Director General of Bureau of Manpower Salim Reza, UNHCR Representative Shinji Kubo, International Labour Organisation (ILO) Country Director Srinivas Reddy and Senior IOM Regional Policy and Liaison Officer Mariko Tomiyama.
