Bangladesh has urged Myanmar to scale up its efforts for the safe and dignified return of tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims living in squalid camps for years after they fled persecution at home.
"The crisis originated in Myanmar, and therefore, Myanmar itself must resolve the crisis with the active involvement of the international community," Bangladeshi Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Md Asaduzzaman said on Sunday.
He made these remarks while speaking at a policy dialogue titled "Sustainable Approaches to Resolving the Rohingya Crisis: Framework of National Strategy and Foreign Contribution" at the CIRDAP Auditorium in Dhaka.
The Law Minister said the human rights and civil rights of the displaced Rohingyas remain a primary consideration for Bangladesh.
He noted that while the Rohingya issue is a humanitarian matter for Bangladesh on one hand, it is also deeply tied to the country's national security concerns on the other.
Recalling discussions with the international community during the United Nations General Assembly session this year, the minister said repatriation cannot simply be a matter of forcibly sending back the Rohingyas or imposing a solution internationally.
Their safety must be guaranteed, and their citizenship, human rights, dignity, and right to education must be secured, with international bodies actively engaged in ensuring this process when they return to their homeland.
Bangladesh has been hosting more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims who fled violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. More than 750,000 of them crossed the border in 2017 when the Myanmar military launched a crackdown on the minority group in northern Rakhine.
Moderated by Dr Shakil Ahmed, Executive Director of the Neeti Gobeshona Kendro, the keynote paper at the dialogue was presented by former Ambassador and member of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee Mohammad Sufiur Rahman.
