Canada’s Trudeau says Commonwealth leaders must support Hasina in handling Rohingya crisis

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has praised Sheikh Hasina for her ‘outstanding’ leadership in handling the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh and urged the Commonwealth leaders to stand by her side.

Reazul Basharfrom Londonbdnews24.com
Published : 19 April 2018, 04:01 PM
Updated : 19 April 2018, 04:28 PM

"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been showing outstanding leadership in handling the Rohingya refugees,” he told the first executive session of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London on Thursday, according to Hasina’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim.    

“The Commonwealth leaders must support her," Trudeau added.

At a seminar in London on Tuesday, Hasina said more international pressure needed to be heaped on Myanmar to take back Rohingya refugees as she rejected claims by the Myanmar government the repatriation process had already started.

"Myanmar says they are ready to take back the Rohingya, but they are not taking the initiative," the prime minister said.

File Photo: Sheikh Hasina speaks to Rohingyas during a visit to refugee camps in Cox's Bazar on Sept 12, 2017.

More than 700,000 Rohingyas have fled Myanmar’s Rakhaine State into Bangladesh since Aug 25 last year when Myanmar launched a military operation dubbed as ‘ethnic cleansing’.

Bangladesh was already sheltering around 400,000 Rohingyas who fled decades of persecution in Myanmar, which deny them citizenship.