Wed 17 August 2022:
Refugees from the Rohingya minority urged Michelle Bachelet, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, to actively involve the organization in helping Myanmar create the conditions necessary for the sustained repatriation of the persecuted minority, Anadolu Agency reported.
Bachelet’s visit marked the first time a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has visited Bangladesh as well as the Rohingya refugee settlements in Cox’s Bazar District.
She spent many hours in the crowded camps and visited the headquarters of numerous humanitarian organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to evaluate the services in the world’s largest refugee camp.
She also exchanged views with a group of Rohingya representatives and asked the genocide survivors about their needs and demands.
“We requested her to engage the United Nations as the world’s most powerful organization to create a peaceful environment in Myanmar so that we can go back to our homeland with citizenship rights and safety,” Maulana Azim Ullah, a Rohingya religious leader, told Anadolu Agency after the meeting.
Ullah said Bachelet assured them of the UN’s positive role in the peaceful and sustainable repatriation of the Rohingya, adding that “until peaceful repatriation, she urged us to keep patience and stay peacefully in Bangladesh’s camps.”
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Rohingya youth leader Khin Maung, however, said they are not satisfied with the slow movement of the UN in resolving the Rohingya crisis.
“We see that the role of the UN only concentrates on taking information, issuing statements and providing mere assurance. I (will) never believe that such a powerful platform of world leaders needs such a long time to create an environment in Myanmar for the sustainable repatriation of the stateless Rohingya,” Maung added.
He also urged the international community and the host nation Bangladesh to take appropriate action to reinforce the safety measures in the camps in light of the recent killings of two Rohingya leaders in the camps.
Although his office did not publish a statement, Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Shah Rezwan Hayat met the UN rights chief at the camp.
More than 1.2 million Rohingya are currently living in Bangladesh, the most of whom fled a deadly military crackdown in their native Rakhine state of Myanmar in August 2017.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
