Jonathan, Narinjara News, 5 September 2024

Md Touhid Hossain, Bangladesh's foreignaffairs adviser, informed that the interim government in Dhaka plans to reachout to the Arakan Army (AA) to discuss the repatriation of refugees to Myanmar,said a report in New Age daily.

In response to a reporter's question aboutthe repatriation of Rohingya refugees, the foreign affairs adviser stated thatestablishing a communication channel with the AA, which currently controls mostof Arakan State, becomes necessary for materialising the process.

"I think this is the way forward, butwe need to assess how much we can achieve at the State level," he added.

Touhid also mentioned that around 8,000 Rohingyasfrom Arakan State  recently crossed into Bangladesh due to ongoing armedconflicts in the region.

“We are having discussions over the matterin the cabinet,” he responded to the reporters at his ministry.

Bangladesh, in principle, has decided not to provideshelter to any more displaced Rohingyas, he asserted.

Expressing sympathy for the persecutedRohingyas, he claimed that  Bangladesh had no more space for additionalrefugees.

Touhid noted that while the border withMyanmar is being monitored closely, ensuring complete security along thefrontier remains a challenge.

"It is not fully possible to seal the border. Ourgovernment will make efforts to prevent further entry of Rohingyas," headded.

He is meeting the home affairs adviser inthe next few days to discuss a possible initiative to adopt.

Since 25 August 2017, Bangladesh supportedover 700,000  Rohingyas from Myanmar in Cox’s Bazar locality due to themilitary crackdown by the military junta forces.

Over the past seven years, no Rohingya hasreturned home.

Myanmar has already agreed to take themback, but the repatriation attempts failed twice due to the Rohingya families’lack of trust in the military junta during their stay in Arakan State.