Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday reiterated her call to the international community to keep up pressure on Myanmar for the repatriation of the Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh.
She made the call when visiting President and CEO of International Rescue Committee (IRC) David Miliband met her at her office in the parliament complex in Dhaka.
Hasina said Myanmar would have to take the Rohingyas back and the international community needs to sustain the diplomatic pressure, her Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told reporters after the meeting.
Miliband, a British Labour Party politician, said his team came to Bangladesh to see the condition of the Rohingyas on the ground.
Praising Bangladesh and its government, he said opening the border to the Rohingyas was a significant humanitarian gesture and it was a good signal to the international community.
Mentioning that the IRC team was working here for the Rohingyas, Miliband said they would continue their assistance and recruit 100 staff from Bangladesh.
He, however, suggested decongestion of the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar.
Both Hasina and Miliband feared that the biggest problem for Rohingyas would be possible mudslides at the camps during the upcoming monsoon.
The prime minister said the government was preparing a safe place at Bhasan Char Island in Noakhali to shift the refugees there.
She said the government was providing all necessary healthcare services to the displaced Rohingyas.
She also said that local people were suffering and environment was being affected due to the latest influx, which began in late August last year following a crackdown of the Myanmar security forces on the Rohingyas.
Since then, more than 700,000 people crossed over to Bangladesh fleeing the brutal persecution. Including them, over 1.1 million Rohingyas are currently sheltered in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and the prime minister’s International Affairs Adviser Gowher Rizvi and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office Md Nojibur Rahman were also present at Tuesday’s meeting.
