Govt wants to begin repatriation this year with around 1000 Rohingyas: Foreign secretary
The foreign secretary said they will get three months in hand if they start preparations from September to begin the repatriation.
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen on Sunday said the government wants to begin repatriation of Rohingyas to their place of origin this year, initially with around 1000 of the refugees.
"We have given a list of over 3000. We need to make sure that families are not separated," he told reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The foreign secretary said they will get three months in hand if they start preparations from September to begin the repatriation.
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He said a Bangladesh delegation will be visiting Myanmar next month while a team from Myanmar will be here to talk to Rohingyas as part of confidence building measures.
The government of Bangladesh has said drastic reduction of humanitarian assistance for this persecuted population, which is growing with around 30,000 newborns every year inside the camps, is compounding the crisis.
Further delay to commence safe, voluntary and sustainable repatriation and shortage of humanitarian support may put the entire region at risk, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday.
International community should continue providing necessary humanitarian support till their sustainable repatriation, the ministry said.
The Rohingya crisis has stepped into the seventh year without seeing any solution.
The socio-economic, demographic and environmental cost of sheltering more than 1.2 million Rohingyas for such a long time is pushing Bangladesh to the limit, it said.
These forcibly displaced people have aspirations and rights to return to their home land in a safe and sustainable manner.
"It is the collective responsibility of the international community to find a durable solution to this crisis in its place of origin in Myanmar," it said.
Rohingyas are developing their portable skills, working as volunteers and their children are attending learning facilities in their language following Myanmar curriculum in the camps in Bangladesh so that they can retain their cultural identity and can smoothly reintegrate in Rakhine society upon return.
