BANGLADESH UNDER 'NO OBLIGATION' TO ACCEPT STRANDED ROHINGYA REFUGEES

  • 27/02/2021

Bangladesh is under "no obligation" to shelter 81 Rohingya Muslim refugees adrift for almost two weeks on the Andaman Sea and being assisted by neighbouring India, said Bangladesh foreign minister A.K. Abdul Momen.

India`s coast guard found the 81 survivors and eight dead crammed onto a crippled fishing boat and were trying to arrange for Bangladesh to take them.But Momen told that Bangladesh expects India, the closest country, or Myanmar, the Rohingyas` country of origin, to accept them.

"They are not Bangladesh nationals and in fact, they are Myanmar nationals. They were found 1,700 km (1,100 miles) away from the Bangladesh maritime territory and therefore, we have no obligation to take them," said Momen, who is in the United States."They were located 147 km (91 miles) away from Indian territory, 324 km (201 miles) away from Myanmar," he said by phone, adding other countries and organisations should take care of the refugees.Indian foreign ministry officials did not respond to requests for comment.


More than 1 million Rohingya refugees from predominantly Buddhist Myanmar are living in teeming camps in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, including tens of thousands who fled after Myanmar`s military conducted a deadly crackdown in 2017.Traffickers often lure Rohingya refugees with promises of work in Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia.

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