Rohingya crisis: Nasim urges commonwealth countries’ support

Health Minister Mohammad Nasim today called upon the commonwealth countries to mount pressure on Myanmar in a bid to put an end to the much-talked-about Rohingya repatriation crisis.

"We are providing shelter to the Rohingyas as per the wills of our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. And, we are providing all sorts of services including health but, we cannot continue this over the years. The commonwealth countries should mount pressure to Myanmar over the issue," Nasim said.

Nasim, also a presidium member of the ruling Awami League, came up with the call while holding a meeting of the health ministers of the commonwealth countries at a hotel in Geneva, Switzerland.

Nasim also highlighted humanitarian role of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government in taking care of the Rohingya people took shelter in makeshift camps in Bangladesh.  

Over 7 lakh Rohingyas have so far fled to Bangladesh when the Myanmar military launched a brutal crackdown in Rakhine which the United Nations called 'a text book case of genocide'.

Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an instrument on November 23 last year to start repatriating the Rohingya people sheltered in Bangladesh and the two neighbours formed a joint working group for supervising the repatriation process.

On May 17, the Joint Working Group held a meeting in Dhaka but failed to fix a date to start the repatriation process of around 700,000 Rohingyas even three months after Bangladesh handed over a list of 8,032 refugees to Myanmar.