A Myanmar delegation and a five-member ASEAN emergency response team reached Cox’s Bazaar to meet Rohingyas at their camps in Cox’s Bazar on Saturday. The teams reached the extension area of Camp-4 in Kutupalong of Ukhiya at around 1:00pm. Apart from the Myanmar delegation, five members of emergency response and assessment team of ASEAN-AHA Centre also reached there at the same time.
U Myint Thu, the permanent secretary at Myanmar foreign affairs ministry led the 14-member Myanmar delegation. AHA Centre, an intergovernmental organisation, was established by the ten ASEAN member states with the aim to facilitate cooperation and coordination of disaster management amongst ASEAN members.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen earlier urged the Myanmar side to come and give assurance to Rohingyas living in Cox's Bazar camp. The Foreign Minister said after Bangladesh's extensive discussions with China, Myanmar showed a kind of willingness regarding repatriation. "They (Myanmar) also invited me. I said I’ll surely visit," he said adding that he will visit to see the people who will be repatriated in the first batch.
Expecting to see the commencement of Rohingya repatriation before September, Bangladesh has urged the UN to work more in Rakhine State of Myanmar to help create a conducive environment there so that Rohingyas can get back confidence to return to their place of origin. Dr Momen hoped that the first batch of Rohingya repatriation will begin before September or before the UN General Assembly but things depend on Myanmar as they created the problem. Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a repatriation deal in November 2017.
More than 7,00,000 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh after fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing and genocide, beginning from August 25, 2017. The ongoing Rohingya influx took the number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to about 11,16,000, according to estimates by UN agencies and Bangladesh foreign ministry.
