Chief Adviser for resettlement of Rohingya refugees to third country

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus has sought the UN support to expedite the resettlement of thousands of Rohingya refugees to a third country.

The Chief Adviser sought this when Thomas Andrews, the Special Rapporteur of the UN on the situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, called on him at his Tejgaon office on Monday.

He also called for creating a ‘safe zone guaranteed by the UN’ for the displaced people in Rakhine and finding ways to support them.

The Special Rapporteur appreciated the Chief Adviser for his three-point proposal on the Rohingya crisis, which were floated on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York last month.

He said the violence in Rakhine state has created an ‘enormous crisis’ in the state, and humanitarian aid is urgently needed for the displaced and starving people, including that of Rohingyas.

The Special Rapporteur said at least 3.1 million people have been displaced in Myanmar, including hundreds of thousands in Rakhine State, where insurgent groups have been fighting against the Myanmar military for years.

He noted that in recent weeks some 30,000 Rohingyas have fled their homes in Rakhine and entered Bangladesh, which is already hosting more than a million Rohingya people in camps in the country's southeastern Cox's Bazar border district.

The Chief Adviser also suggested talks with the international community, including ASEAN, over the violence and displaced people in Rakhine.

The ICC investigations into the atrocities committed against the Rohingya in 2017 and the recent student-led revolution in Bangladesh were also discussed during the meeting.