Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has said 41 non-government organizations (NGOs) have been withdrawn from all kinds of activities in Cox’s Bazar Rohingya camps for their wrongdoings.
A total of 139 NGOs have been operating in the Rohingya camps since the Rohingya crisis began in August 2017, he said while inaugurating waste management activities at Dakshin Surma under Sylhet City Corporation on Saturday.
Dr Momen also said certain action will be taken against NGOs if they go beyond and abuse their terms and references.
The NGO Affairs Bureau on Thursday suspended six different projects being run out of the Cox’s Bazar NGO branch called Mukti. This was based on allegations that the production of sharp weeding tools was being distributed among the Rohingyas. Some 600 of these tools were allegedly forged.
An official suspension order signed by the Assignment Officer of NGO Affairs Bureau Sirajul Islam Khan was issued on Wednesday.
On August 29, the foreign minister said specific measures will be taken against the NGOs operating in Rohingya camps if evidence is discovered about their activities.
“We will surely take action against those NGOs if we get evidence or proof that they are involved in any political or instigative activities (inside Rohingya camps),” he told reporters at state guesthouse Padma after briefing diplomats over the latest Rohingya situation.
Bangladesh is now hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas. More than 730,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh after the Myanmar military launched a brutal attack, primarily targeting the Muslim ethnic minority on August 25, 2017.
A UN fact-finding mission said the violence had “genocidal intent”.
