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TL;DR
- Bangladesh’s interim government chief, Muhammad Yunus, urges expedited Rohingya resettlement to third countries amid escalating violence in Myanmar
- Over 1 million Rohingya refugees currently reside in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh, with 8,000 new arrivals fleeing recent violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state
- IOM Bangladesh reports resettlement efforts resumed in 2022 after a 12-year hiatus, with the US committed to accepting thousands of Rohingya refugees
- Bangladesh’s foreign minister states the country cannot accept more Rohingya refugees, urging other nations to take in those fleeing the violence
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, called for an expedited third-country resettlement of Rohingya living in the South Asian nation during a meeting with officials from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Sunday, September 8, 2024. The appeal comes as a new wave of approximately 8,000 Rohingya refugees flee escalating violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in recent months.
The new arrivals add to the more than one million Rohingya refugees already residing in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district, most of whom escaped a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017. The Rohingya face bleak prospects of returning to their homeland, where they are largely denied citizenship and fundamental rights.
During the meeting, Yunus emphasized that the “resettlement process should be easy, regular, and smooth” and directed officials to accelerate the efforts. Abdusattor Esoev, head of the IOM in Bangladesh, noted that the resettlement of Rohingya to third countries resumed in 2022 after a 12-year hiatus but has only gained momentum this year.
The United States has reaffirmed its commitment to resettle thousands of Rohingya, but the process has not yet been significantly accelerated, according to a statement from the Chief Adviser’s office.
The recent surge in violence marks the worst situation the Rohingya have faced since the 2017 Myanmar military-led campaign, which the United Nations described as having genocidal intent. Bangladesh’s de facto foreign minister, Mohammad Touhid Hossain, recently stated that the country cannot accept more Rohingya refugees and urged India and other nations to take in more of those fleeing the violence.
The meeting was attended by foreign adviser Touhid Hossain, foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen, home secretary Akhter Hossain, SDG affairs secretary Zuena Aziz, disaster management and relief secretary Kamrul Hasan, and IOM deputy chief of mission Fatima Nusrat Ghazzali.
