Bangladesh PM urges Myanmar to take back Rohingya Muslims

AP
In this file photo, Rohingya Muslim refugees pose for a photograph at their house in Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district. (AFP)
  • About 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state since last August.
  • Aid agencies and have expressed concern that the Rohingya will not be safe or be able to live freely if they return.

KOLKATA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called for international pressure on Myanmar to take back hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have sought shelter in her country to escape military-led violence.
Hasina says Bangladesh gave shelter to the fleeing Rohingya on humanitarian grounds, but they should return to Myanmar.
“Other countries should put pressure on Myanmar to take them back,” she said in a speech Friday at Visva-Bharti University in India’s West Bengal state.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the speech.
About 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state since last August and are living in squalid camps across the border in Bangladesh. Aid agencies and have expressed concern that the Rohingya will not be safe or be able to live freely if they return.

Topics: Rohingya Myanmar Bangladesh