Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina has stated that the 10 lakh Rohingyas that have fled from Myanmar’s Rakhine province into Bangladesh are a threat to the security of the entire region. The Bangladesh PM has urged the international community to help resolve the issue.
As per reports, Hasina was addressing the three-day ‘Dhaka Global Dialogue-2019’ in the Bangladeshi capital. Hasina said, ” In terms of regional security, I would like to say that more than 1.1 million Rohingya citizens of Myanmar fled to Bangladesh in the face of persecution and they are a threat to the security of not only Bangladesh but also the entire region.”
“I urge the world community to take appropriate action, realising the gravity of the threat. It is not possible to ensure development and prosperity in any country without having peace and safety”, said Hasina.
The three-day event was jointly organised by Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS), a government think tank in Bangladesh and India’s Observer Research Foundation (ORF). Over 150 delegates from 50 countries have participated in the dialogue.
It is notable here that as per UN data, as of May 2018, more than 9,00,000 Rohingyas had fled Rakhine province. Most of them have been staying in the cramped refugee camps in Cox Bazar.
Thousands of Rohingyas have infiltrated into India too, as per reports. India has firmly stated time and again that Rohingyas are a threat to national security and the government will take necessary steps to deport them.
Bangladesh has been planning to relocate the Rohingyas from the cramped Cox Bazar refugee camps to an uninhabited island ‘Bhasan Char’ 21 miles off the Bangladesh coast in the Bay of Bengal.
Bhashan Char, which literally means ‘floating island’ emerged as an island about 20 years ago from a slit. The area was declared a forest reserve in 2013 and it regularly gets flooded between the monsoon months of June to September. The island’s area is around 10,000 acres at high tide and 15,000 acres at low tide.
Earlier, Bangladesh had declared that despite concerns by human rights groups, it will start relocating the Rohingyas in phase by phase manner from November.
