Arakan News Agency
Bangladesh has warned the United Nations that it can no longer continue hosting nearly 1.3 million Rohingya refugees, calling for urgent international action to ensure their repatriation to Myanmar, following the adoption of a new UN General Assembly Third Committee resolution on the situation of the Rohingya.
Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Salahuddin Noman Chowdhury, said that his country is bearing a burden beyond its capacity due to the continuous influx of refugees and the lack of any progress in repatriation efforts over the past eight years.
In a statement on Thursday, he explained that 105 countries co-sponsored the latest UN resolution, which reaffirms international concern over violations in Rakhine State and calls for an end to the violence and accountability for the perpetrators.
The envoy noted that the Rohingya population continues to grow annually, with some 30,000 new births recorded within the camps, while renewed violence has pushed an additional 150,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh since 2023, increasing pressure on land and resources in one of the world’s most densely populated countries.
He also warned that conditions inside the Cox’s Bazar camps are becoming increasingly dangerous due to overcrowding and rising risks of human trafficking and cross-border crime, holding the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army responsible for the worsening violations and obstruction of humanitarian access.
The UN resolution called for renewed diplomatic efforts, the implementation of a transparent political process, and the creation of a safe environment that would allow refugees to return voluntarily and sustainably, while Bangladesh criticized the lack of progress in implementing ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus.
Dhaka emphasized that without urgent international action, the crisis risks becoming permanent, with repercussions extending far beyond the region.
Bangladesh hosts over a million Rohingya refugees in the Cox’s Bazar camps, classified by the UN as the largest refugee settlement in the world. Refugees have been living there under difficult humanitarian conditions since fleeing Myanmar in 2017, following the military’s “genocide” campaign against them. Waves of displacement to Bangladesh have continued since fighting erupted in Rakhine State between the Myanmar military and the Buddhist Arakan militias (Arakan Army) in November 2023.
