Dhaka wants UNHCR to ask other countries to open doors

NEWAGE

Diplomatic Correspondent | Published: 15:41, Feb 14,2019

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen on Wednesday stressed the need for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to take steps to convince the other countries except Bangladesh to allow Rohingya people of Myanmar to cross their respective borders. 

‘We have taken enough people (from Myanmar),’ he said replying to a question on the UNHCR’s call to keep the Bangladesh borders open for more Myanmar people. 

‘There are 193 countries in the world that are members of the United Nations. Bangladesh is one of them with high population density,’ he added. 

‘We want to see whether the UNHCR can convince the other countries,’ Momen said at a press conference in Dhaka on prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to Germany and the UAE.
The UNHCR headquarters in Geneva on February 8 called upon the Bangladesh government to continue to allow people fleeing ‘conflict’ in Myanmar to seek safety in Bangladesh. 

On Myanmar’s repeated attempt at instigating hostile propaganda, the foreign minister said that though they instigate it first, this is good news that when Bangladesh talked about ‘corrective measures’ on their on-going propaganda, they accepted it readily, according to United News of Bangladesh.

‘It’s a good sign, very positive sign. We want to build our relationship based on these good signs,’ said Momen.

He said issues related to the Rohingya crisis and regional security will be discussed in various speaking slots kept for prime minister Sheikh Hasina and other heads of government at the Munich Security Conference 2019.

Bangladesh is now hosting around 1.3 million Rohingyas and received more than 720,000 Rohingyas from Myanmar since August 2017.

Foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque and senior officials were present at the press conference. 

Link : http://www.newagebd.net/article/64789/dhaka-wants-unhcr-to-ask-other-countries-to-open-doors