Last Sunday at Gonobhaban, in response to a query with regard to the possible solution to the Rohingya crisis, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stated, “Myanmar does not want more than 1 million Rohingya refugees who are currently sheltering in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district to be repatriated. Myanmar in no way wants them (Rohingya) back. This is the problem. We are trying to do our part.”
Hasina also included that she had spoken to the leaders of India, China, and Japan, who agreed that the Rohingya were Myanmar nationals and should be repatriated.
The prime minister also stated that aid agencies share the blame for the delay in the repatriation process.
“The problem I am now seeing is the voluntary aid organizations who never want Rohingya to be repatriated to their own country. We have signed an agreement to start the repatriation process but there is a movement not to have them repatriated. Who instigated this movement?” she said.
She believes the aid agencies do not want the repatriation process to begin because it would put them out of work.
Nay San Lwin, campaign and media relations coordinator for the Free Rohingya Coalition, an umbrella network of Rohingya refugees, said, “A protected return to a protected homeland is the only option for the Rohingya.”
Meanwhile, the Cox’s Bazar-based Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPHR) has issued a notice to the UN and ASEAN that there will be no repatriation to Myanmar without consultation with the Rohingya in Bangladesh.
