Bangladesh assured Monday the international community that the country is "fully prepared" to address the problems Rohingya refugees might face in the upcoming monsoon season.
Foreign secretary Shahidul Haque said Bangladesh had taken preparations to protect the Rohingya refugees from the potential monsoon onslaughts.
"Monsoon is nothing new to us and we know how to handle it," Mr Haque said.
He made the remarks at an international conference on Rohingya Refugee crisis, jointly organised by the Centre for Genocide Studies of Dhaka University, Brac University and ActionAid in the city.
He sought to assuage the concerns voiced by the United Nations and international humanitarian organisations that the monsoon may wreak havoc on over 1.2 million Rohingya refugees.
Fleeing the violence and persecution unleashed by the Myanmar security forces since August 25, last year, the stateless refugees took shelter in South-eastern Bangladesh's Teknaf and Cox's Bazar.
Mr Haque said the sufficient land was allocated and required infrastructure was built to relocate Rohingyas who are staying in places to be vulnerable during monsoon.
Responding to the criticisms that Bangladesh was outsmarted by Myanmar on the diplomatic front, the foreign secretary insisted the reality was opposite, saying that since the onset of the crisis, Bangladesh has achieved a number of successes in bilateral and multilateral forums.
To buttress his point, he said that the international community has put constant pressure on Myanmar, compelling it to sign a repatriation agreement with Bangladesh, thanks to Dhaka's efforts.
Disclosing the terms of the deal, he said that Bangladesh has successfully persuaded Myanmar to accept some terms, which previously they had not agreed to honour.
"We said that after repatriation, there should not be any criminalisation of Rohingyas, meaning no criminal case can be filed against them to harass them."
There should be no discrimination and their resettlement and reintegration should be done in a sustainable manner, he said, adding Myanmar agreed to all these terms.
Myanmar's consent to allow the Bangladesh taskforce to visit the Rakhine state to monitor the repatriation is also the outcome of Bangladesh's successful negotiation, according to Mr Haque.
The relentless persuasion by the Bangladesh side compelled Myanmar to include the UNHCR in the repatriation process, he added.
Mr Haque noted that during the upcoming Council of Foreign Ministers of the OIC, the Rohingya issue would be widely discussed. Delegations of the OIC countries would also visit the Cox's Bazar Rohingya camps, he said.
The foreign secretary added that a Myanmar minister would visit Bangladesh this month and he is also scheduled to visit Rohigya camps and the no man's land on the border.
Responding to a question, he said Bangladesh was "happy" with the Indian response the crisis and both the countries are maintaining regular communications over the issue.
He told the audience that necessary measures have been taken to prevent trafficking of the refugees.
Professor Imtiaz Ahmed of the International Relations Department of the Dhaka University and director of the Centre for Genocide Studies, recommended a string of measures that include Bangladesh Prime Minister's visit to China and India, inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to Bangladesh, arranging a conference of the countries, which are sheltering Rohingyas and the coordination of an international conference within or outside the UN to discuss and settle the matter.
Addressing the conference, Sudipta Banarjee of the UNDP said the voluntary and fully informed repatriation in safety and in dignity of the Rohingyas to their place of origin in Myanmar is the one and only durable solution the international community has called for.
"We must attach greater attention to the huge costs the host communities have carried on their shoulders as a result of the crisis, this goes from inflationary pressures on consumables to growing pressure on the capacity to deliver all public services to a district population that has grown by 50 per cent in just couple of weeks or months," he said.
Bob Rae, special envoy of Canadian Prime Minister to Myanmar, in his message said that more needs to be done to ensure the safety and survival of the Rohingya people, a million of who are now in Bangladesh, while hundreds of thousands in the Rakhaine state of Myanmar.
He said that the "remarkable efforts" of Bangladeshi people and the government need to be sustained through international assistance and engagement.
mirmostafiz@yahoo.com
