Rohingya are seen arriving on a boat to Bangladesh on September 14, 2017 in Shah Porir Dip, Bangladesh. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh since August 2017 during the outbreak of violence in Rakhine state.
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Bangladesh hopes Southeast Asian countries will put pressure on Myanmar to repatriate the displaced Rohingya and bring them home, the foreign minister said.
AK Abdul Momen said Bangladesh is bearing the brunt of Rohingya Muslims, who have sought shelter in the South Asian country following a massive exodus following brutal crackdowns by Myanmar’s military in 2017.
The Rohingya are a persecuted Muslim minority from Rakhine State in western Myanmar. While there have been major migrations from Rohingya to Bangladesh since the 1970s, none have been as rapid and massive as the August 2017 exodus.
“About 1.1 million persecuted Rohingyas are now being cared for in Bangladesh,” Momen told CNBC’s “Streets Signs Asia” Monday. “Our priority is for these Rohingya persecuted people to go back to their homes for a decent living,” he said.
Bangladesh has taken in the Rohingya for humanitarian reasons, but the South Asian nation “has problems with it now,” Momen said. He hopes ASEAN member states – or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – will play a strong role in the upcoming summit to get Myanmar’s military government to take back the refugees.
Now that the government of Myanmar has been invited (to) the summit in Indonesia by ASEAN, this is good news. At least they will go there and maybe they will be pressured by ASEAN, hopefully, to take their people back, Momen said.
Myanmar is currently in a state of emergency following a military coup on Feb. 1 in which the powerful junta ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Momen’s comments come as Myanmar’s military commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing is reported to be attending the ASEAN summit in Indonesia on April 24. The ten-member regional bloc has been trying to find a way to defuse the escalating crisis in Myanmar. has killed 700 civilians and detained more than 3,000 so far, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
Observers have warned that Myanmar is on the verge of becoming a “failed state” and that more international efforts are needed from the world’s greatest powers to resolve the violence.
While Bangladesh’s foreign minister did not take a position on the latest military coup, he stressed that his government wants stability back to Myanmar.
“Bangladesh believes in democracy. And we want the justice system to stand,” said Momen, adding that his country does not support violence because it only leads to “more violence and insecurity”.