The government has completely failed to mobilise international support to solve the Rohingya crisis, said the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Thursday.
At a press conference at the BNP chair’s Gulshan office, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that the repatriation of Myanmar’s displaced citizens would not be possible without the proactive role of the international community, especially that of the influential Asian and western countries.
The BNP arranged the press conference marking the five years since hundreds of thousands of Rohingya men, women, boys and girls fled violence and persecution in Myanmar in 2017.
The government, Fakhrul further said, has miserably failed to resolve the Rohingya problem in the past five years as it has been using the issue for its political gain.
Bangladesh has been bearing the burden of more than 10 lakh Rohingyas while 30,000 Rohingya children, on average, are being added every year, he said, adding that the number of Rohingyas thus has increased to more than 12 lakh and the number will continue to rise every day.
He said that the international solidarity towards Bangladesh and the Rohingya refugees was needed now more than ever as it was not possible to send the Rohingyas back to Myanmar unless the international community, including India, China, Japan, the United States and the European countries, exerted more effective pressure in this regard.
The BNP leader said that the government must intensify its diplomatic and political efforts to encourage the world community to mount pressure on Myanmar to take back its nationals.
‘Though many countries of the world have protested the violence against the Rohingyas, it is regrettable that Myanmar has also extensive business relations with many of them,’ he noted, adding that the Bangladesh government should identify the countries with this dual position and persuade them to change their position through vigorous diplomatic efforts.
The ruling Awami League is failing to take a clear, effective and specific position on the Rohingya issue due to narrow political reasons, he added.
BNP secretary general Fakhrul further warned that Bangladesh was going to fall into a big crisis as the government had failed to take any effective steps to resolve the crisis.
The Rohingya problem has been putting an unbearable pressure on the economy of Bangladesh in addition to the extreme instability and uncertainty in the local environment and social life it has caused, he pointed out.
‘Drug trade, women trafficking and various other anti-social and illegal activities are going on at the Rohingya camps, contributing to the turbulent and unstable situation there. Rohingyas are also involved in internal conflicts. These issues have become a cause for serious concerns,’ he added.
Referring to the Rohingya problem-solving process during the governments of former president Ziaur Rahman and former prime minister Khaleda Zia, Fakhrul said, ‘It is not possible for a government that is isolated from the people, internationally weak and without a mandate to deal with a complex and international problem like the Rohingya problem.’
‘It is possible only on the part of a people-friendly democratic government, which is missing in Bangladesh at the moment,’ he said.
