Bangladesh told the UN Security Council on Thursday that it will no longer be able to take in refugees from Myanmar. Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque told a council meeting that the crisis over the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya sheltering in his country had gone from "bad to worse" and urged the council to take "decisive" action.

The United Nations, on the other hand, has stressed that refugees fleeing conflict should be granted safe haven after Bangladesh declared that it would no longer take in Myanmar's Rohingya. "Bangladesh has been amazingly generous in the support they have given the Rohingya refugees," said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

"It is important that people fleeing conflict are able to find safe haven wherever they go." Around 740,000 Muslim Rohingya are living in camps in Bangladesh after they were driven out of Myanmar's northern Rakhine state during a military campaign in 2017 that the United Nations has described as ethnic cleansing.

"Here, I regret to inform the council that Bangladesh would no longer be in a position to accommodate more people from Myanmar," said Haque. Under a deal reached with Bangladesh, Myanmar agreed to take back some of the refugees, but the United Nations insists that the safety of the Rohingya be a condition for their return.

"Is Bangladesh paying the price for being responsive and responsible in showing empathy to a persecuted minority population of a neighboring country?" asked the foreign secretary. After five trips to Myanmar, UN envoy Christine Schraner Burgener reported "slow progress" in efforts to help hundreds of thousands of Rohingya return home and warned that Myanmar's elections next year could worsen the crisis.

The Swiss diplomat, who was appointed in April as UN envoy for Myanmar, said UN agencies had been  given “insufficient” access to help prepare the return of the Rohingya. Myanmar’s Ambassador Hau Do Suan insisted his government was taking steps and appealed for patience.

He spoke of “huge physical as well as psychological barriers” in the way of allowing the refugees’ return and stressed that “it takes time and patience as well as courage to build trust and confidence among different communities in Rakhine.”

China, which has close ties with Myanmar’s former military junta, insisted that development aid could help ease tensions in Rakhine and made clear the council should not get involved in addressing the refugee crisis.

“It is up to the two countries to work out a solution,” said Chinese Deputy Ambassador Wu Haitao.

In December, Britain circulated a draft resolution that would have forced Myanmar to roll out a strategy for addressing the Rohingya crisis, but China threatened to veto the measure, according to diplomats.

“We are very disappointed that there hasn’t been more progress on getting the refugees back,” said British Ambassador Karen Pierce. “The scale of what has been done to the Rohingya Muslims and the allegations of crimes against humanity really mark this out as one of the most terrible events of this century so far,” said Pierce.

The UN envoy warned that the election campaign “could add to the domestic complexities” in Myanmar, which is still struggling with a democratic transition after 50 years of military rule.

Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been criticized for failing to speak out to defend the Rohingya, is seeking to consolidate her position ahead of the 2020 vote. Myanmar’s military dominates the Buddhist-majority nation, holding a quarter of seats in parliament and controlling three ministries, making their grip on power firm despite political reforms which began in 2011.

UNB adds: Bangladesh has asked Myanmar to take more specific measures for safe return of the Rohingyas saying it does not want anything except their safe, dignified, voluntary and sustainable return to their place of origin in Myanmar.

“We don’t want anything except a safe, dignified, voluntary and sustainable return of the Rohingyas to Myanmar. We expect the Security Council’s continued leadership to resolve the Rohingya crisis,” said Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque according to a press release of the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations.

On addressing the accountability issues, the Foreign Secretary said Myanmar’s own investigation process seems to have failed time and again. “Therefore, existing UN mechanism needs to be initiated.”

He urged Myanmar to ensure full implementation of the MoU among Myanmar, UNDP and UNHCR as well as the recommendations of the Kofi Annan Advisory Commission on Rakhine State.

“We’ve been hearing that most of the recommendations of the Annan Commission have already been implemented. Had it been so, I can assure you the situation on the ground would have been improved vastly,” said the Foreign Secretary. He said it is very natural for one to ask why Rohingyas are not willing to return voluntarily and why Bangladesh is still having fresh arrival as of today.

UN Special Envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener also briefed the UNSC on her recent visit to Bangladesh and Myanmar in this regard.

 

Since her appointment as Special Envoy in April 2018, Burgener has visited Myanmar five times and Bangladesh thrice. Her most recent visit to Myanmar was from 19 to 28 January, and she was last in Bangladesh in early February.

“Despite our sincere efforts, the repatriation process of the Rohingyas could not begin yet since a conducive environment for their return is yet to be created in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. What could be more unfortunate than this?” he said.

“Is Bangladesh paying for this situation for showing sympathy and providing shelter on humanitarian grounds to the minority Rohingya community who faced persecution and barbaric atrocities in their own land?” he posed a question.

The Foreign Secretary said the root cause of the Rohingya crisis lies in Myanmar, and so does its solution.

On Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s “zero tolerance” policy against terrorism, he said the government is determined to make

sure that no terrorist group is allowed to use a single inch of Bangladesh’s land for the activities.