Bangladesh Seeks Stronger International Role in Safe and Voluntary Rohingya Repatriation

Bangladesh Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed has called on the international community to play a more effective role in ensuring the safe, dignified and voluntary repatriation of Rohingyas displaced from Myanmar.

He made the appeal during a courtesy meeting with Julie Isabelle Bishop, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Myanmar, at his office in the Ministry of Home Affairs at the Bangladesh Secretariat on Monday afternoon, October 19.

The meeting covered Myanmar’s current political and security situation, the Rohingya crisis and the repatriation of displaced people.

The home minister said Bangladesh had been dealing with the crisis for years by providing humanitarian shelter to hundreds of thousands of displaced Myanmar nationals fleeing the country’s internal conflict. He stressed that the international community needed to take more effective action to achieve a lasting and sustainable solution.

Special Envoy Julie Bishop said she had continued diplomatic efforts and maintained regular communication with relevant parties to help end the conflict in Myanmar and ensure the protection of civilians.

The meeting also raised concerns over the spread of landmines in border areas, human trafficking and drug trafficking, as well as the regional and global implications of these challenges.

Participants emphasised the importance of political dialogue and mutual cooperation in creating conditions conducive to the repatriation of Rohingyas.

Those present at the meeting included Dr Ziauddin Ahmed, additional secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs; Joint Secretary Rebeca Khan; UN Resident Coordinator Gwyn Lewis’s successor, Carol Flore-Smereczniak, as identified in the supplied report; Senior Political Affairs Officer Duncan Keith Wilson; and UNHCR Deputy Representative Juliette Murekisoni.