PM calls for global efforts

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday called upon the international community to take measures to repatriate Rohingyas to their homeland of Myanmar and ensure their dignified lives there.

“The world should think about how the Rohingya crisis can be resolved so that they can return to their homeland,” she said.

The premier said this while  a British cross-party

parliamentary delegation led by Vice Chair of All-Party Parliamentary Group on Bangladesh and Chair of APPG on Indo-British, Virendra Sharma, MP, paid a courtesy call on her at the Gono Bhaban.

PM’s Speechwriter M Nazrul Islam briefed journalists after the meeting.

This is the first parliamentary visit from the UK since the national election was held in Bangladesh on January 7.

During the meeting, Hasina said they gave shelter to Rohingyas after their mass exodus in face of inhuman torture in 2017.

Myanmar has agreed to take back its nationals, but has yet to take any measure to this end despite the fact that six years have already passed, she said.

Mentioning that the global monetary assistance has decreased since the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war, she said, “So, Rohingyas are now becoming a huge burden for a small country like Bangladesh.”

The five-member parliamentary delegation includes Paul Scully, MP, former Conservative minister for tech and digital economy; Neil Coyle, MP, member of UK House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs; Andrew Western, MP, opposition whip at the House of Commons; and Dominic Moffitt, senior parliamentary assistant at the House of Commons.