DHAKA: Bangladesh on Thursday welcomed a consensus on a United Nations resolution related to the repatriation of the 1.2 million Rohingya refugees to Myanmar it has sheltered for the past 6 years.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled a military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017 have sought refuge in neighboring Bangladesh.
They joined others who escaped persecution earlier and settled in the camps of Cox’s Bazar district, a coastal region in Bangladesh’s southeast that hosts the largest refugee settlement in the world.
The third committee of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the resolution on the situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar by consensus on Wednesday.
Tabled by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the EU, the resolution was co-sponsored by 114 nations, marking the biggest global support since the beginning of the Rohingya crisis, according to Arab News.
Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Dr. Abdul Momen said that they welcome the resolution. A solution to the Rohingya crisis is very important to Bangladesh and it supported the efforts. This time, 114 nations have co-sponsored the resolution initiated by the OIC. It is a big development.
The resolution urges Myanmar to foster a conducive environment to facilitate the safe, voluntary, and dignified return of the Rohingya to their home country, and calls for swift implementation of the 2021 peace plan presented by members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to expedite the repatriation process.
The return of the Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar has been on the agenda for years, but a UN-backed repatriation process had yet to start until now, despite pressure from Dhaka amid dwindling financial support to host the large community.
Talks between Myanmar, Bangladesh
Since March, repatriation has been negotiated between Myanmar and Bangladesh under a pilot scheme mediated by China, but Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner in Cox’s Bazar Mizanur Rahman said that despite several visits and the compilation of data from an initial group of Rohingya willing to return, it is still unclear when the process will begin.
