US assures Bangladesh of diplomatic support for Rohingya repatriation

The visiting senior US officials have assured Dhaka of Washington’s support, both “financially and diplomatically,” for the “safe, sustainable and dignified” repatriation of the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals.

Acting Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration Simon Henshaw led delegation conveyed this assurance to State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam during a meeting on Wednesday at his office, the foreign ministry said.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour (DRL) Scott Busby, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA) Tom Vajda, Director of the Office of Mainland Asia Patricia Mahoney and US Ambassador to Bangladesh Marcia Bernicat were also present during the meeting.

Both sides agreed to continue pressure on the Myanmar government in this regard.

The delegation will visit different Rohingya Camps in Cox’s Bazar on Nov 2 and 3.

They “deeply appreciated” Bangladesh’s decision to temporarily shelter more than 600,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals and stated that Bangladesh “responded extremely well” to this unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

The State Minister expressed his sincere thanks to the Acting Assistant Secretary for the strong political as well as humanitarian support of the US government on the Rohingya issue.

He highlighted the five-point proposal given by the Prime Minister at the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly in September this and also requested for the continuation of this support in this regard.