United States welcomes Rohingyas from Bangladesh

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United States is ready to accept Rohingyas who fled Myanmar amid genocide committed by Burmese military junta.

In a statement the Antony Blinken said, the US is working to significantly increase the resettlement of Rohingya refugees from the region, including from Bangladesh so that they can rebuild their lives in the US, as an essential component of an international, comprehensive humanitarian response.

In a statement today (August 25, 2022), he said the US would support a UN Security Council referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court, while also supporting the Gambia’s case at the International Criminal Court (ICJ).

He also reiterated its commitment to advancing justice and accountability for Rohingya and all the people of Myanmar in all credible courts around the world that have jurisdiction in cases involving the country’s military’s atrocities.

Antony Blinken, who declared violence against Rohingya as genocide in March this year, said Myanmar military regime’s recent executions of pro-democracy and opposition leaders are only the latest example of the military’s abject disregard for the lives of the Burmese people.

“Its escalation of violence has exacerbated the worsening humanitarian situation, particularly for ethnic and religious minority communities, including Rohingya, who continue to remain among the most vulnerable and marginalized populations in the country”.

Since 2017, the United States has sought pathways to continue to support Rohingya, recognizing that they cannot safely return to their homeland under current conditions.

The US provided more than US$1.7 billion to assist those affected by the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar, Bangladesh and elsewhere in the region.

Bangladesh PM calls for immediate repatriation of Rohingyas

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Myanmar should allow international organizations to work in the Rakhine state to create an appropriate environment for the dignified return of the forcibly displaced Rohingya people.

“Myanmar should allow international organizations to work in the Rakhine state”, she said while United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Myanmar Noeleen Heyzer called on her at the latter’s official residence Ganabhaban.

Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters after the meeting.

“We’re pursuing this with Myanmar and also discussed it. But, no response has yet come. We want to solve it. How long we can host this huge number of people?” the Premier was quoted as saying.

Some of the Rohingyas are already involved in criminal activities, including human trafficking and drug abuse, she said, adding that they are also destroying the environment in the region.

Recalling the CHT Peace treaty, Sheikh Hasina some 62,000 refugees were returned home from India after signing the treaty in 1997.

The UN special envoy said that she visited Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar and had talks with them.

Now, it is essential to create a suitable atmosphere to ensure their dignified return to Myanmar, she said.

She said all, including the UN agencies and NGOs, are working for Rohingyas in the camps.

Appreciating Bangladesh for its Rohingya management, she said Bangladesh needs a lot of support in dealing with the Rohingya issue.

Noeleen Heyzer said she also visited Myanmar and told its military government to find out a solution to the Rohingya crisis.

She put emphasis on making the Rohingya crisis an agenda in the ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting as well as the ASEAN-Bangladesh initiative to resolve the Rohingya crisis.

Myanmar junta patronizes drug smuggling

Bangladesh’s Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said the military regime in Myanmar is patronizing yaba traders in the country to smuggle the drug into Bangladesh.

The amount of yaba entering Bangladesh has increased by two and a half times since the military junta gained control of Myanmar following a coup in 2021, the minister told a parliamentary body.

“Despite discussions with the Myanmar government to this end, the military regime there is rather patronizing the yaba traders, therefore, more yaba is entering into Bangladesh comparing to the past,” Asaduzzaman Khan told the parliamentary standing committee on home ministry at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.

There are many remote areas in Bandarban and Khagrachhari where round-the-clock surveillance is not possible and it takes two days to go from one Border Outpost to another, the minister said, adding that the number of BOP is being increased in all those areas.

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