Foreign minister: Rohingya crisis growing more complicated over time

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said the government is working hard to solve the Rohingya crisis, even as the problem continues to grow even more complicated as time passes.

He made the remarks after inaugurating the Annual Thematic Meeting of the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) at a Dhaka hotel on Sunday.

He said: “We have to maintain minimum standards for the Rohingyas. Their human rights will be violated if we fail to do so.”

At the same event, Nojibur Rahman, principal secretary to the prime minister, said the government is negotiating with various United Nations bodies regarding the relocation of over one million Rohingyas to Bhashan Char in Noakhali.

The principal secretary said: “We have constructed some infrastructure in Bhashan Char. We are discussing with the UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to reach consensus on the relocation of some of the Rohingyas. We want to relocate the Rohingyas because they are at risk of landslides and floods during the monsoon.”

The number of displacement, especially in South Asia, has dramatically increased over the years owing to the adverse effects of climate change, said Marrie Annick Bourdin, Ambassador of France, which will take charge of the Platform on Disaster Management from current Chair Bangladesh in June.

IOM Director for Global Compact for Migration, Michele Klein Solomon, observed that the earlier response from the international community was spontaneous in relation to displaced people due to disasters.  But things are changing now and hopefully the response will be greater in the future, she said.

The Platform on Disaster Displacement is a state-led initiative launched by the governments of Bangladesh and Germany as a successor to the Nansen Initiative during the World Humanitarian Summit held in Istanbul in May, 2016. It has a steering group composed of 17 states and the European Union, and an advisory committee with over 100 organizations and experts from around the world. The main objective of the platform is to strengthen the protection of displaced people across borders in the context of disasters, including those associated with the adverse effects of of climate change.

The theme of this year’s meeting is “Working Together For Addressing Displacement Due To Slow And Sudden-Onset Disasters.”