The government is yet to set a timeline for repatriation of Rohingyas who escaped into Bangladesh to flee military crackdown in Myanmar.
The international community, including the UN Security Council, too failed to take effective action or send a clear message that there would be accountability for the military's crimes against humanity, a report of Amnesty International says.
At least 10 lakh Rohingya refugees have so far crossed over to Bangladesh to escape shooting and arson attacks by Myanmar army and Buddhist monks since 1942.
The two countries formed a joint panel to repatriate the recently arrived Rohingyas following an agreement signed last year.
The panel agreed the 'arrangement on return of the displaced people' from Rakhine on Jan 16. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said he couldn't say any exact date of repatriation process. Ashaduzzaman Khan came down heavily on Myanmar over the repatriation of one Rohingya family last week. "It's nothing but a farce. The repatriated Rohingya family did not reach Bangladesh as they used to live on no-man's land," Kamal said while talking to reporters recently. "We have sent the number to Myanmar authorities after completing their
biometric registration," he added.
The World Food Programme has so far received donations of $45 million, only 18 percent of $243 million required mainly for providing food to one million Rohingyas and 200,000 locals in Cox's Bazar until December. This was part of the total UN appeal of $951 million, second phase of a joint response plan, launched in March in Geneva. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has reiterated her call in every international forum to put continued pressure on Myanmar from different levels for the safe return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh.
Sheikh Hasina again reiterated when Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop met Hasina at a Sydney hotel on Friday morning on the first day of her three-day visit.
The UN Security Council will pay a visit to Bangladesh and Myanmar beginning Saturday as it weighs next steps to address one of the world's worst refugee crises, stemming from the forced exodus of Muslim Rohingya. The council is urging Myanmar to allow their safe return and take steps to end decades of discrimination that the Muslim minority has suffered in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
The visit kicks off in the camps of Cox's Bazaar in Bangladesh where ambassadors will meet refugees, whose harrowing accounts of killings, rape and the torching of villages at the hands of Myanmar's military and militias have been documented in UN human rights reports.
Led by Kuwait, Britain and Peru, the four-day visit is expected to include a trip by helicopter to Rakhine to allow ambassadors to tour villages affected by the violence, including Pan Taw Pyin and Shwe Zar.
The council will hold talks with Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been criticized for failing to speak out in defense of the Rohingya, and with Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Kuwait's Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi said the visit was not about "naming and shaming" Myanmar, but that "the message will be very clear for them: the international community is following the situation and has great interest in resolving it."
"We are coming to see how can we help, how can we push things forward," he said, stressing that the current situation was "not acceptable."
As many as 700,000 people have fled their country and they cannot go back. It's a humanitarian disaster.
