PM Hasina to highlight Rohingya issue at G7 outreach program

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will highlight the Rohingya crisis at the G7 outreach program in Quebec next month.

“The G7 members are sympathetic to the Rohingyas and have been supporting Bangladesh. They want to know more about the crisis,” a senior Foreign Ministry official said, reports Bangla Tribune.

The annual G7 Summit will take place from June 8-9. The outreach program is scheduled for June 9.

More than 700,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh since late August last year to escape a brutal Myanmar military offensive targeting them in the Rakhine state. They joined hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas who had previously escaped to Bangladesh.

Despite having lived in Myanmar for generations, Naypyidaw does not recognize the Rohingyas and refer to them as ‘Bangalis’ to imply that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The mainly-Muslim ethnic minority has been subjected to state-sponsored discriminations that stretch back decades. 

The UN has dubbed Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

“We want their (the Rohingyas) sustainable return [to Myanmar] as they are posing threat to our economy, security and environment,” the Foreign Ministry official said. “We want a permanent solution to this problem ... Such incidents will recur if the perpetrators are not punished.”