Bangladesh calls for urgent acceleration of Rohingya resettlement

• The new wave of refugees has increased the number of Rohingya in Bangladesh.
• Yunus emphasized the need for an easy, regular, and smooth resettlement process.
• The resettlement of Rohingya to third countries resumed in 2022 but has only gained momentum this year.

On Sunday, Muhammad Yunus, the head of Bangladesh’s interim government and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, urged the fast-tracked resettlement of Rohingya Muslims to third countries. This appeal comes as a new wave of refugees flee escalating violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

As fighting intensifies between Myanmar’s junta and the Arakan Army, a powerful ethnic militia from the country’s Buddhist majority, around 8,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled across the border to Bangladesh in recent months.

The arrival of new refugees has increased the number of Rohingya in Bangladesh’s overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar to over one million. Most of these refugees fled Myanmar in 2017 during a military-led crackdown. The Rohingya refugees hold little hope of returning to their homeland, where they are largely denied citizenship and other basic rights.

During a meeting with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Yunus, Chief Adviser to the interim government, urged for an expedited resettlement process, emphasizing that it “should be easy, regular, and smooth.”

According to a statement from the Chief Adviser’s office, Abdusattor Esoev, head of the IOM in Bangladesh, noted that the resettlement of Rohingya to third countries resumed in 2022 after a 12-year hiatus, but has only gained momentum this year.

The United States has reaffirmed its commitment to resettling thousands of Rohingya, though the process has yet to accelerate, according to the statement. The recent surge in violence is the worst the Rohingya have faced since the 2017 Myanmar military-led campaign, which the United Nations described as genocidal.

Last month, Bangladesh’s de facto foreign minister, Mohammad Touhid Hossain, told Reuters that Bangladesh cannot accept more Rohingya refugees and urged India and other countries to take in more of those fleeing violence. He also called on the international community to increase pressure on the Arakan Army to stop its attacks on the Rohingya in Rakhine state.

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