Rohingyas with Bangladeshi passports considered as Bangladeshis: Saudi envoy

Saudi Ambassador to Bangladesh Issa bin Youssef Al-Duhailan on Sunday said they are considering those Rohingyas as Bangladeshis who have been to Saudi Arabia with Bangladeshi passports.

He said a high-level committee has been formed to scrutinise the process.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan who was present at the same programme said the Rohingya issue is a very old one and they will look into it in terms of renewal or reissuance of the passports.

"Those who are from Myanmar,   are not Bangladeshi citizens but they are citizens of Myanmar," he said. 

They were speaking at a food baskets distribution ceremony at a city hotel.

According to media reports, around 55,000 Rohingyas went to Saudi Arabia on various occasions with Bangladeshi passports. 

The Home Minister thanked the Saudi government for its support towards Rohingya repatriation efforts apart from extending the humanitarian ones for the persecuted people. 

He said Bangladesh continues its efforts on all fronts for the repatriation of Rohingyas to their place of origin in Rakhine State and hoped that the Saudi government will continue its support. 

The Home Minister said the relationship between Bangladesh and the Saudi Arabia will be strengthened further in the coming days.

The Saudi Ambassador said the proposed visit of Saudi Foreign Minister has been postponed due to his domestic engagement and the visit will take place soon to discuss bilateral relations. 

Meanwhile, Bangladesh, Myanmar and China will hold a tripartite meeting virtually on Tuesday to discuss ways to expedite the Rohingya repatriation process as the international community finds the repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar as the only solution to the crisis. 

Vice Minister of China Luo Zhaohui will virtually join the meeting from Beijing with Bangladesh and Myanmar delegations, a senior official told UNB on Sunday. 

Earlier, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said Bangladesh has handed over a list of 8 lakh 40 thousand Rohingyas to Myanmar for verification. 

"Myanmar has verified very few people. They're very slow. They verified only 42 thousand people. There's a serious lack of seriousness," said the Foreign Minister. 

Dr Momen said they are doing their part but Myanmar is not helping the same way. 

He said he is always hopeful of beginning repatriation as history says they took back their nationals in 1978 and 1992.

People live in hope and Rohingya refugees also do so and thus they spent another, 2020, that they would have a dignified return to their homeland in Myanmar. But, the hope for a better day did not come.      

More than three years ago, Myanmar's soldiers "targeted, killed, and raped" Rohingya and burned their villages, as the United Nations, Refugees International, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the U.S. State Department itself, and many others have documented.

Over 800,000 Rohingyas fled the "genocidal violence" and Bangladesh is now hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas.

Bangladesh is trying in multiple ways - bilaterally, multilaterally, tri-laterally and through the judicial system – to find a lasting solution to the Rohingya crisis.

Bangladesh and Myanmar signed the repatriation deal on November 23, 2017.On January 16, 2018, Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a document on "Physical Arrangement", which was supposed to facilitate the return of Rohingyas to their homeland.