24 Rohingya leave Bangladesh for US to settle in 3rd country

24 Rohingya leave Bangladesh for US to settle in 3rd country

It is on small scale but good start for other nations to share responsibility of refugees with Bangladesh, says minister

By Md. Kamruzzaman

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – For the first time, 24 Rohingya refugees flew from Bangladesh to the US on Thursday to formally settle in any third country.

Speaking on the phone with Anadolu Agency, Bangladesh's Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said while it is on a small scale, it is a good beginning for other nations sharing the Rohingya responsibility alongside Bangladesh.

He added that 24 Rohingya from the first batch of 62 listed by the host country left for the US on Thursday.

"Nearly two years ago, I requested (US Secretary of State) Antony Blinken to take some Rohingya refugees to settle in the US and other developed countries. It has started, and it is only the beginning," Momen said.

Bangladesh is currently hosting more than 1.2 million persecuted Rohingya, most of whom fled a brutal military crackdown in their home country of Myanmar’s Rakhine State in August 2017.

Despite numerous initiatives and the signing of an agreement with Myanmar, Dhaka was unable to begin the peaceful and dignified repatriation of the Rohingya to their motherland, resulting in negative socioeconomic and environmental impacts in Bangladesh.

In such a difficult situation, Bangladesh has urged developed countries around the world to share the burden of a large number of Rohingya refugees.

"The population density per square mile in many European and other developed countries is only 15-25, while it is only 40 in the US. In Bangladesh, however, the population density per square mile is 2,900. Moreover, those developed countries require workers. So, we logically expect them to relocate Rohingya from Bangladesh," the minister said.

The main desire of the Rohingya in Bangladesh's overcrowded camps is to return to their homeland with safety, rights, and dignity.

“We are more than one million in Bangladesh. The new initiative may allow several thousand of our people to migrate to any third country. It’s good news for us, and we hope that other countries will also take more Rohingya,” Mohammad Ansar, a Rohingya youth, living on the remote Bhasan Char island, told Anadolu Agency.

They are stateless and have no refugee status in Bangladesh, he said, adding that "we live in a constrained environment where our children have limited access to quality education and higher education. So we hope that by relocating to a third country, such as the US, we will be able to improve our lives."

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