The Rohingya crisis will be discussed in the global forum, with the aim of a constructive resolution, during UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s visit to Bangladesh.
Shafiqul Alam, press secretary of the chief adviser, said this while addressing a press conference held at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka on Wednesday.
Guterres will be in Dhaka from 13 to 16 March where he will meet Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, one of the world’s largest refugee settlements. This is his second-time visit to Bangladesh.
Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus and Guterres together will visit the Rogingya camp in Cox’s Bazar and take iftar with at least one lakh Rohingya refugees there on 14 March, he said.
Later, they will jointly inaugurate a model mosque at Cox’s Bazar Airport on Friday, Shafiqul said.
At least $15 million needs to maintain livelihood of the Rohingya refugees but the volume of the foreign aid has recently declined significantly, he said.
The peace and stability in Rakhine state of Myanmar for Rohingya repatriation will be the main point of discussion during the visit of the UN Secretary General, he said.
The government is maintaining communication with Arakan Army through its diplomatic channel to ensure dignified repatriation of the Rohingya refugees, he said.
The UN Secretary General will be shared the progress of the works of the National Consensus Commission during the visit, he said.
During his visit, Guterres will also visit the capital, Dhaka, where he will meet Chief Adviser Prof Muhammed Yunus, as well as young representatives of civil society.
The Secretary-General has made solidarity visits an annual tradition, beginning during his decade-long tenure as UN High Commissioner for Refugees, when he regularly observed Ramadan alongside displaced and marginalised communities.
UN chief Guterres, in a recent letter to Yunus, expressed his hope that the high-level conference on Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar will renew global focus and help develop broader solutions for their plight.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
