A 15-member United Nations Security Council team will arrive in Bangladesh tomorrow to discuss the Rohingya issue with the government as it weighs next steps to address one of the world's worst refugee crises, stemming from the forced exodus of Rohingya.
The visit kicks off in the camps of Cox's Bazaar where ambassadors will meet refugees, whose harrowing accounts of killings, rape, and the torching of villages at the hands of Myanmar's military and militias have been documented in UN human rights reports.
The security council team, led by its President Gustavo Meza-Cuadra of Peru, will arrive in Bangladesh tomorrow afternoon. They will leave for Myanmar on Monday morning, a foreign ministry spokesperson told BSS. State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Md Shahriar Alam, will receive the delegation in Cox's Bazar.
The delegates will talk to Rohingyas to know the plight of the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals, who took shelter in Cox's Bazar following violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State in August last year.
During the visit, the team will exchange views with government officers engaged in the repatriation process, and local and foreign organizations providing humanitarian assistance and other services to the Rohingya community in different camps.
The team will pay a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday before leaving for Myanmar on a two-day visit. State minister Shahriar will host a reception in the delegation's honour at Radisson Blu Dhaka Water Garden Hotel on Sunday evening.
Led by Kuwait, Britain, and Peru, the four-day visit is expected to include a helicopter trip to Rakhine to allow ambassadors to tour villages affected by the violence, including Pan Taw Pyin, and Shwe Zar.
The council will hold talks with Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been criticized for failing to speak out in defense of the Rohingya.
Kuwait's Ambassador, Mansour al-Otaibi, said the visit was not about "naming and shaming" Myanmar, but "the message will be very clear for them: the international community is following the situation and has great interest in resolving it."
"We are coming to see how we can help, how can we push things forward," he said, stressing the current situation was "not acceptable."
"700,000 people have fled their country and they cannot go back. It's a humanitarian disaster."
Myanmar has come under international scrutiny since a military campaign launched in August drove more than 700,000 Rohingya from their homes in northern Rakhine state and into crowded camps in Bangladesh.
