Finance Minister A M A Muhith said on Sunday the World Bank (WB) has stopped providing project funds to Myanmar to put pressure on the country for repatriation of Rohingya people from Bangladesh.
"The World Bank has stopped all the projects in Myanmar, except those that are meant for providing relief to the Rohingya people or others there," he said.
Mr Muhith was briefing newsmen after a meeting with WB Group President Jim Yong Kim at his secretariat office.
The minister, however, expressed his doubt whether Myanmar will take back the total 1.5 million Rohingya people, now living in Bangladesh.
He said Myanmar may take back a few of them following the global pressure.
"From the past experience we can be sure that the Rohingya will not be repatriated."
Mr Muhith termed the talks, going on in the name of repatriation of the Rohingya people, rubbish.
"All these talks are meant for delaying repatriation. We have no reason to believe the Burmese people."
He said WB has recently announced grants amounting to US$ 480 million to support the Rohingya people living in Bangladesh.
Of the amount, $ 50 million will be available anytime soon. The remaining funds will be released in the next two years. The money will be spent for feeding the Rohingya people and for their rehabilitation.
Mr Muhith said he is also expecting financial support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for them.
In the budget for fiscal year (FY) 2018-19, the government has kept an allocation of Tk 4.0 billion to meet the relief, rehabilitation and other needs of the Rohingya people.
The minister thanked the international community for standing by Bangladesh in handling the issue of Rohingya, who came to the country in the face of atrocities in Rakhine State.
"This is not a war but an attack. The whole economy (of Bangladesh) could have been upset. They saved us."
Mr Muhith said he demands creation of a 'safe zone' in Rakhine for ensuring dignified and safe repatriation of the Rohingya people.
The minister termed the Rohingya people a big burden for a densely-populated country like Bangladesh.
The visit of the WB Group president along with United Nations (UN) Secretary General António Guterres and his team to Bangladesh and Rohingya camps will also intensify pressure on Myanmar.
Meanwhile, in a joint statement after the meeting with the WB Group president, the finance minister said the Rohingya issue is "critical, simply because we have a heavy burden to share".
He said the people of Bangladesh took refuge once (in 1971), and there is no way to forget it.
"But certainly we want the Rohingya to go back to their own country with dignity and safety. This is all that we want, and there we are getting immense support of the international community."
The WB Group president in his statement praised Bangladesh for heading towards the right direction under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
"This year we made a record amount of lending to Bangladesh, (amounting to) over $ 3.0 billion. This is the second largest in the world among the WB clients."
He said it is also a very clear indication of the trust that the country is going in the right direction. The World Bank has recently announced $ 400 million for supporting the Rohingyas.
Mr Kim said he and the UN secretary general came here to express gratitude to the people and government of Bangladesh for receiving so many refugees and "doing so in a peaceful and humane manner".
"We all are extremely concerned about the situation of the Rohingya people."
He noted that the WB Group had begun to work on refugee situations in the recent years because of the intervention of UN Secretary General Mr. Guterres.
"About five years ago he reached out to me, and said WB has to get involved, as some of these refugee situations last so long that they are not just refugee situations, they become development situations."
He further said they are working to ensure that the resources are coming to Bangladesh for the Rohingya people as grants, so that the generous and humane country which supports them is not punished.
"The situation is a humanitarian tragedy. We need to move on to make sure that the Rohingya can go back in a peaceful way," Mr Kim said.
"We insist that the generous and humane countries that support the refugees should not be punished for that."
"That's why, on the insistence of the prime minister, the finance minister and the citizens, we are doing everything we can to ensure that the resources come (to Bangladesh) in the form of grants," he added.
syful-islam@outlook.com