International
-DW News
Beijing,
Aug
08:
China
pledged
on
Sunday
to
support
Bangladesh
in
repatriating
thousands
of
Rohingya
refugees
to
Myanmar.
Bangladeshi
Foreign
Minister
A.K.
Abdul
Momen
discussed
the
issue
with
his
Chinese
counterpart
Wang
Yi
in
Dhaka.
More
than
a
million
Rohingya
Muslim
refugees
live
in
camps
in
Bangladesh,
having
fled
persecution
in
Buddhist-majority
Myanmar,
mostly
in
2017.
‘Bangladesh
needs
support
from
China’
Beijing
has
already
constructed
about
3,000
houses
in
Myanmar’s
Rakhine
state,
for
prospective
Rohingya
returnees,
Momen
said.
Myanmar:
US
to
declare
Rohingya
treatment
‘genocide’
He
added
that
China
“will
also
arrange
initial
food
support”
for
the
repatriated
refugees.
“We
must
thank
China
that
they
agreed
to
do
that,”
the
foreign
minister
said.
Analyst
Munshi
Faiz
Ahmad,
who
served
as
Bangladeshi
ambassador
in
Beijing,
told
the
Associated
Press
that
to
“resolve
the
Rohingya
crisis
Bangladesh
needs
support
from
China.”
Refugees
fear
going
back
China
had
earlier
brokered
an
agreement
with
Myanmar
in
November
2017
to
repatriate
about
700,000
Rohingya
Muslims.
And
again,
efforts
were
made
in
2019
twice
to
return
the
refugees.
But
these
attempts
failed
as
the
Rohingya
refugees
rejected
the
move
fearing
a
reemergence
of
the
violence
that
forced
them
to
flee.
These
fears
have
only
been
exacerbated
by
the
military
coup
in
Myanmar
last
year.
Bangladesh
is
attempting
to
catalogue
the
identity
of
the
refugees.
It
has
sent
biometric
data
of
more
than
800,000
refugees
living
in
the
camps
located
in
the
south-eastern
district
of
Cox’s
Bazar
to
Myanmar,
officials
said.
Source: DW