Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim will visit a Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar to learn more about the brutalities meted out to the Muslim minority in their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine State as Ankara has promised support for the refugees.
Published : 19 Dec 2017, 11:18 PM
He is expected to reach Cox’s Bazar at 10:30am on Wednesday and to visit the Kutupalong refugee camp. He is scheduled fly for Turkey at 2pm from the airport at the southeastern district town.
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali will accompany him on the tour.
The decades-old Rohingya crisis took a catastrophic turn on Aug 25 when Myanmar military began an “ethnic cleansing” in Rakhine State.
After his meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday, Yildirim said Turkey would continue to give necessary support to Rohingya refugees.
"We will continue to make necessary contributions and give support as per guidance of the prime minister of Bangladesh and the government of Bangladesh," he said.
Bangladesh and Myanmar have formed joint working group to work out the repatriation process. The international community, however, insists the return must be in safe and voluntary manner.
An estimated 655,000 Rohingyas have fled across the border from Myanmar since Aug 25, when the army launched a crackdown following insurgents’ attack on several police outposts and a military camp in Rakhine.
Some 400,000 Rohingya refugees were already living in Bangladesh prior to the recent influx, having crossed the border to escape persecution at various points in the past few decades.
The Human Rights Watch says 354 villages have been partially or fully destroyed in the Rakhine State since the military crackdown began in August.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein has said those attacks had been "well thought out and planned" and asked Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to do more to stop the military action.
The top UN human rights official has also said he would not be surprised if a court one day ruled that acts of genocide had been committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.
Turkey’s vocal response has been seen by many commentators as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ambition to be a global Muslim leader.
The Turkish leader was one of the first who managed to get permission for humanitarian aid to enter Myanmar when its government blocked all UN aid towards the Rohingyas.
He had also sent aid to Rohingyas in Bangladesh through his wife Emine, drawing huge publicity. As the chair of the OIC, he also held a special session on Rohingya crisis.
Turkish Prime Minister Yildirim, before his arrival in a news briefing in Ankara, said the visit aims to address regional issues such as Rohingya crisis and to enhance relations between the two nations.
He had applauded the Bangladeshi government for “not leaving them [Rohingyas] in the lurch”.