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Published : 25 Aug 2025, 07:05 PM
As the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh enters its eighth year, 11 countries have reaffirmed their commitment to finding a path for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees.
In a joint statement, the countries also pledged continued support for Bangladesh.
The signatories include Australia, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, France, Switzerland, and Finland.
The statement was released on Monday morning by the French Embassy in Dhaka through its Facebook page and X handle.
It said, “Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh want to return to their homes. The international community remains committed to finding pathways towards repatriation.”
They committed to working with Bangladesh at a high-level conference in New York next month to address both Myanmar’s current situation and the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
The mass influx of Rohingya refugees began on Aug 25, 2017, when violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State drove more than 750,000 people across the border into Cox’s Bazar’s Ukhiya and Teknaf.
They joined some 400,000 Rohingya already living in camps there.
As part of the build-up, the Office of the High Representative for Rohingya Affairs, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has organised a three-day international conference, titled “Stakeholders’ Dialogue: Takeaways to the High-Level Conference on Rohingya Situation", in Cox’s Bazar, beginning Sunday.
On Apr 8, shortly after UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s visit to Dhaka, chief advisor's High Representative for Rohingya Crisis and Priorities Affairs Khalilur Rahman first floated the idea of creating a “humanitarian aid channel” for Bangladesh.
On repatriation talks with both Myanmar and the Arakan Army, which now controls parts of Rakhine, he added that all sides agreed repatriation was the only solution.
For the first time, the Myanmar government even declared 180,000 Rohingya “eligible” for return. What remains undecided, he said, is the process itself.
