Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called for more international pressure on Myanmar to take back Rohingya refugees, rejecting an assertion by Myanmar that it has repatriated the first Rohingya family of five.
“The international community needs to put more pressure on Myanmar so that they take back their own people and ensure their security,” she told an audience in London on Tuesday, reports Reuters.
“Myanmar says they are ready to take back the Rohingya, but they are not taking the initiative,” said Hasina, who is in London to attend the Commonwealth Summit.
Also on Tuesday, Canada and Britain called for a meaningful investigation into reported atrocities by the Myanmar army.
Meanwhile, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Ursula Mueller said over 400,000 Rohingya who are still living in Myanmar's Rakhine state continue to face hardship and marginalisation due to restrictions. Mueller visited Myanmar last week.
Nearly 700,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh from Rakhine to escape a military crackdown since August, amid reports of murder, rape and arson by Myanmar troops and Buddhist vigilantes in actions which the United Nations has likened to “ethnic cleansing”.
Hasina said they were living in the borderlands, with some of their family members in their camps.
“Maybe [Myanmar] wants to show the world they are taking them back. It's a good sign. If they want, then why only one family? We have already submitted the names of 8,000 families, but they've not taken them back,” she said.
Hasina also confirmed a plan to move 100,000 Rohingya refugees to an uninhabited low-lying island in the Bay of Bengal, dismissing fears that it would put them at the mercy of floods.
“We are expecting to move those who are in a vulnerable place to the island. Bangladesh can always be flooding and it does. The camps are very unhealthy. We have prepared a better place for them to live, with houses and shelters where they can earn a living,” she said.
