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Published : 14 Mar 2025, 03:00 PM
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus have reached Cox’s Bazar to inspect the situation at the Rohingya refugee camps.
A chartered jet of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the two leaders touched down at 12:48pm on Friday in Cox’s Bazar Airport, where they were greeted by Disaster Management Advisor Faruk E Azam.
Guterres and Yunus then reached the Rohingya Camp in Ukhiya at 2:10pm after completing formalities at the airport, according to the chief advisor’s press department.
Guterres will attend a host of programmes there, including attending a campaign for Rohingya children, inspecting a learning centre, visiting the Rohingya Cultural Centre to witness a cultural performance and visiting a paddy-based goods production centre.
Chief Advisor Prof Yunus is set to launch a project at Cox’s Bazar Airport and visit the Khurushkul Climate Refugee Center.
After the inspection, Yunus and Guterres will join an Iftar event with almost 100,000 Rohingya refugees in Ukhiya.
This Iftar is being organised by the chief advisor, according to a briefing by Abul Kalam Azad Majumder, chief advisor’s deputy press secretary.
Additional Superintendent of Cox’s Bazar District Police Md Jahim Uddin Chowdhury said: “The Special Security Force (SSF) has coordinated the security measures on the whole and security has been set up in many layers for this trip.”
“The army is in charge of camp security during the visit. Law-enforcing agencies are working to ensure strict security from Cox’s Bazar Airport to the refugee camp.”
Yunus and Guterres are scheduled to return to Dhaka later on Friday.
YUNUS INSPECTS AIRPORT CONSTRUCTION
Chief Advisor Yunus went to the Cox’s Bazar Airport to inspect the progress on the construction work.
Yunus visited two sites and was briefed on the project by the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh.
CAAB said 95 percent of the construction work on the international airport had been completed and the remaining work might be wrapped up by this December.
Once it becomes operational, 40 to 50 aircraft may take off and land at the airport every day, officials informed the chief advisor.
Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the upgrading of the airport, located at the country’s most popular tourist destination, to international standards in 2015. The cost of developing the old 6,775-foot runway to one that is 10,700 feet in length is estimated to cost Tk 19 billion.
Earlier on Friday, the UN secretary-general spoke with Foreign Advisor Touhid Hossain before meeting Yunus and starting towards Cox’s Bazar.
Guterres arrived in Bangladesh on Thursday at Yunus’s invitation for a four-day state visit.
In a press conference at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital on Wednesday, Abul Kalam shared the details of Guterres’s itinerary.
He said the UN chief would arrive in Dhaka at 5pm on Thursday, and his main activities would take place on Friday and Saturday.
Abul Kalam said the chief advisor has a separate agenda in Cox’s Bazar, where he will inaugurate a project at the Cox’s Bazar Airport, visit a climate refugee centre, and open a model mosque.
On Saturday, the UN secretary-general will spend a busy day in Dhaka, visiting the UN office and holding meetings with the National Consensus Commission and later with representatives of civil society.
He will hold a press conference that afternoon.
Later, the chief advisor will host an Iftar and dinner in the UN chief's honour.
On Sunday, Guterres will depart from Bangladesh.
