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Bangladesh bolstering border to stop influx of Rohingyas as Military take charge in Myanmar

Just Earth News | @justearthnews | 04 Feb 2021, 12:50 am Print

Bangladesh bolstering border to stop influx of Rohingyas as Military take charge in Myanmar Rohingya Influx

In August-September 2017, widespread violence forced over 700,000 Rohingya to flee their homes in Myanmar for safety in Bangladesh. Photo: IOM/Mohammed

Dhaka: Bangladesh has secured the country's border with Myanmar for fear of a new influx of Rohingyas. The move comes in the wake of a year-long state of emergency in neighboring Myanmar after the military arrested civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen told reporters at his office on Wednesday, "We have secured our borders (to stop the flow of potential Rohingyas)."

"However, some of our allies fear that the Rohingya living there (as the army seizes state power in Myanmar) may flee Rakhine and come to Bangladesh," he said.

Momen said Dhaka wants to continue talks with Myanmar to move forward with the ongoing process of initiating Rohingya repatriation. A tripartite meeting between the secretaries of Bangladesh, China and Myanmar on January 19 decided to hold a meeting of the Joint Working Group on February 4 to further discuss the resumption of Rohingya repatriation.

A pre-scheduled meeting of the Joint Working Group to be held on Wednesday has not yet been confirmed, an official said. Because after the coup in Myanmar, Dhaka could not communicate with the country.

More than 1.1 million Rohingyas forcibly displaced from Rakhine have been given shelter in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district. Most of them have been here since August 2017, when the military crackdown began in Myanmar. The United Nations has called the incident a "prime example of genocide" and other human rights groups have called it a "genocide."

In the last three years, Myanmar has not taken back a single Rohingya. Attempts to repatriate Rohingya in Rakhine State have failed twice, as they have no confidence in their safety.