Arakan News Agency
Pakistan on Wednesday stated that it is only issuing passports for the Rohingya community for identification purposes, without granting them citizenship.
“We are not giving them citizenship. But we are giving them passports with a different code or serial number so that they can be identified as Rohingya,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said following a meeting with his Bangladeshi counterpart Jahangir Alam Chowdhury in Dhaka, according to “Anadolu” agency.
“Anadolu” stated that Pakistan issues passports to Rohingya for settlement in third countries, adding that Pakistan’s Karachi is home to more than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims, which makes it the third larger host of Rohingya after Myanmar and Bangladesh, which hosts more than a million Rohingya refugee.
Chowdhury and Naqvi also discussed Rohingya repatriation, combating drugs, terrorism, and cybercrime, as well as police training and increasing bilateral trade. Naqvi’s trip to Bangladesh is the first official visit since Pakistan’s then-Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani visited in 2012. Bilateral ties between Pakistan and Bangladesh have improved in recent months.
Cox’s Bazar is currently home to nearly one million Rohingya refugees who fled mass violence in 2017. Eight years on, most remain in camps with limited access to education. The Australian delegation will seek to amplify the voices of Rohingya refugees, particularly women and youth.
