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UN seeks information on Rohingya issue
United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has asked Dhaka for precise details about Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya refugees.
- By Anisur Rahman, Correspondent
- Published: 23:02 September 28, 2009
Dhaka: United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has asked Dhaka for precise details about Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya refugees.
The agency is asking Dhaka to include the issue in the "upcoming Washington-Yangon talks" as an agenda, item reports said here yesterday.
The state-run BSS news agency and New Age newspaper reported that UNHCR representative Saber Azam sought the details of thousands of Rohingyas who took refuge in Bangladesh to evade persecution by the Myanmar junta as he met law minister Shafique Ahmad later on Monday.
"The UNHCR has sought 'correct statistics' for Rohingya refugees so that the issue can be included in the negotiations between the United States and Myanmar, preparations for which are under way," the minister said after the meeting.
Azan is reported as saying the UNHCR was concerned about the influx of the refugees in Bangladesh and the UN body was in talks with other government agencies on the issue.
Bangladesh earlier sought to end the issue with Yangon with repatriation of the remaining thousands of Myanmar's Muslim ethnic minority people, calling them an "economic burden" for this impoverished South Asian country.
The law minister on Saturday said there were 28,000 registered refugees staying in two camps in the sea resort town in southeastern Cox's Bazar while the number of unregistered Rohingyas was nearly 400,000.
"These Rohingyas are illegally driven from their land and are making a social problem here," Ahmad said.
Neither side, however, gave details about the Washington-Yangon talks and US embassy officials in Dhaka told Gulf News that they were yet to have any information about the proposed talks.
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni earlier said despite its severe resource constraints, Bangladesh so far did a good job in providing basic needs to them for the last three decades.
But recently she said they have become a burden on the country.
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