World has left Bangladesh to shelter 1m Rohingya refugees alone, says minister

The Guardian

Kaamil Ahmed

Wed 26 Oct 2022 

Shahriar Alam criticises international community for doing ‘absolutely nothing’ to press Myanmar’s junta to guarantee a safe return

Rohingya refugees behind a barbed-wire fence in a temporary settlement in a ‘no man's land’ border zone between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Photograph: Ye Aung Thu/AFP/Getty Images

The world has done “absolutely nothing” to ensure safety in Myanmar for its persecuted Rohingya minority, said Bangladesh’s foreign minister, complaining that his country is sheltering more than 1 million refugees without support.

Foreign minister Shahriar Alam told the Guardian financial support for the Rohingya has decreased each year and there has been no real progress towards repatriation in the five years since more than 700,000 fled massacres by Myanmar’s military. That wave, in August 2017, joined approximately 300,000 people that had already fled Myanmar because of previous security crackdowns.