PM urges int'l community to force Myanmar to take back Rohingya

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged on Sunday the international community to come up with specific effective steps to force Myanmar to take back their nationals living in Bangladesh, reports UNB.

"Bangladesh and Myanmar have inked bilateral agreements for the safe and permanent repatriation of the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals. To continue the pressure on Myanmar for implementing the agreements, I urge the international community to take specific effective steps," she said.

The Prime Minister said this while inaugurating the Regional Hub of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) in Dhaka at Radisson Hotel. This IsDB Regional Hub will cover 19 countries like Singapore, Australia, Thailand, India.

She said Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) had given an instruction to stand beside the oppressed people and IsDB cannot remain silent when the Myanmar Rohingya people are facing ethnic cleansing. "So, to ensure the repatriation of the forcibly displaced Rohingya, I request the IsDB to firmly stand beside them."

The Prime Minister said Bangladesh has been proactively responding to the unprecedented humanitarian crisis by keeping its border open and accepting the large influx of forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals known as Rohingya despite having multifarious negative impacts on the local community and the country's ecosystem and resources. "We're giving shelter and food to the

Finance Minister AMA Muhith, IDB President Bandar MH Hajjar and Economic Relations Division (ERD) Secretary Kazi Shofiqul Azam also spoke on the occasion.

Hasina said though Bangladesh is acclaimed internationally for good disaster management, it is still one of the most vulnerable countries that suffers and will continue to suffer for climate change.

She said a good number of activities under the 'Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP)' are underway for mitigating the effects of climate change. "We've created Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund with our own resources."

She said a 'Country Invest Plan (2016-2021)' has been prepared to determine the investment demand, current investment and investment gap that exists in environment, forest and climate change sector.

"Some USD 11.7 billion will be required during the tenure of the investment plan; of which USD 4.7 billion has been invested from internal and external sources, that means there's an overall investment deficit of USD 7 billion. We need your extended financial support in this regard," she said.

The Prime Minister said Bangladesh has been striving to ensure socio-economic development in a sustainable manner. "We're working towards elevating our status to an upper middle-income country shortly. We've also set our next target of becoming a happy and prosperous country by 2041."

She thanked the IsDB for opening of the Dhaka Regional Hub as part of their recent decentralisation drive of operations from Headquarters to the client countries.

Meanwhile, President of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Dr Bandar MH Hajjar on Sunday assured Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of his bank's continued support to Bangladesh in its development efforts.

"The IDB will always remain proactive over Bangladesh. Dhaka will be its first Regional Hub as the bank has decided to set up such hubs in different countries," he said.