UNHCR welcomes Prof Yunus’s commitment to support Rohingys

On the seventh anniversary of the Rohingya influx into Bangladesh, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) today welcomed Bangladesh’s renewed commitment to supporting the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals as outlined by Chief Advisor of Bangladesh’s Interim government Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus.

“We echo Dr. Yunus’s call for continued solidarity from the international community through consistent financial support and helping to ensure their “eventual repatriation to Myanmar, with safety, dignity and full rights,” it said in a statement.

The UNHCR said Bangladesh’s humanitarian spirit, at a time of transition for the Bangladeshi people, deserves global appreciation.

“As we mark seven years since the large-scale Rohingya refugee arrival, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, once again calls for sustained commitment from international partners to support the protection of nearly one million Rohingya hosted by Bangladesh, and to help secure solutions for a lasting end to their plight,” read the statement.

Noting that a dignified and sustainable return to Myanmar remains the primary solution to this crisis, the UNHCR called on the international community to demonstrate the political will to make this possible.

“We also call on the Bangladesh authorities to ensure that civilians fleeing the violence in Myanmar be allowed access to protection in Bangladesh,” said the refugee agency.

UNHCR urged the stakeholders to continue their support for Rohingya’s self-reliance.

In 2024, humanitarian agencies have appealed for $852 million to assist 1.35 million people, including Rohingyas and hosting Bangladeshi communities.

“We urge donors and private actors to step up their funding to the Rohingya response. The Rohingya people deserve our best, as do the generous people of Bangladesh who cannot be left to shoulder this crisis alone,” said the UNHCR.

On 25 August 2017, the statement said some 700,000 Rohingya men, women and children were forced to flee Myanmar and seek protection in Bangladesh, joining those who had fled in previous years.

“The generosity by the Government and the people of Bangladesh in providing the Rohingya temporary refuge was supported by the international community and has been critical in meeting the refugees’ protection and basic needs, alongside assistance provided to local hosting communities,” it said.

In Cox’s Bazar and on Bhasan Char, it said, 52 per cent of the Rohingya population are under 18 years old, many of them born in asylum or having spent their first years in the refugee camps.

“With meaningful support and opportunities, they are capable of immense achievement. We must invest in Rohingya children, youth, women and girls, empowering them to lift up their own communities,” said the UNHCR.

Already, it said, thousands of Rohingya have taken positively trainings and responsibilities to support critical services in the camps, including legal counseling, mental health, community health work, operation and maintenance of water and sanitation infrastructure, shelter repair, as well as serving as first responders to weather and fire incidents.

“Through partnership and collective action, we can counter the harmful impacts of generations of violence and deprivation, including the harm caused by exploitative organized groups who prey on vulnerable youth in the camps,” said the UN body.

Enhancing resilience through skills, education and livelihoods programmes is critical to helping the Rohingyas refugees to stand on their own feet and move beyond aid dependency, it added.

Since August 25 in 2017, Bangladesh has been hosting over million forcefully displaced Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar district while most of them arrived there after a military crackdown by Myanmar, which the UN called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” and other rights groups dubbed it as “genocide”.

In the last seven years, not a single Rohingya went back home.

Myanmar agreed to take them back, but repatriation attempts failed twice due to trust deficit among the Rohingyas about their safety and security in Rakhine state. (BSS)