Dhaka ready to welcome 5 high-profile dignitaries

Dhaka is set to welcome five high-profile dignitaries, including the UN Secretary General António Guterres, next week. The dignitaries will visit Rohingya refugee camps, attend a session on sustainable development agenda and discuss the country's socio-economic achievements with government high officials.

Apart from Guterres, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, the High Commissioner for UN Refugee Agency Filippo Grandi, the President of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Peter Maurer and Dr Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA and UN Under-Secretary General will be making the visit.

The foreign ministry has confirmed that the UN secretary general and the World Bank group president will arrive in Dhaka in the early hours of Sunday (July 1) while the two others will likely arrive a day ahead.

Dhaka is considering the visits “very significant” as these will draw the attention of the global community to Bangladesh and in turn to the Rohingya issue.

The visits are taking place barely a month after the United Nations Security Council's visit to the Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar on April 28-29.

This will be Guterres's second visit to Bangladesh since his first on May 26-27, 2008, when he was the chief of UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). His last assignment here was also for finding a lasting solution to the issue of around 27,000 Rohingya refugees living in the country back then.

But this time, Guterres will find 1.1 million Rohingyas, including the 700,000, who fled to Bangladesh to escape atrocities perpetrated by the Myanmar army in Rakhine State last August.

As per the latest programme schedule, officials said António Guterres will arrive in Dhaka from New York by Qatar Airways flight at 1:45am. The WB president is also expected to come on the same flight.

Guterres will begin his official programmes in Bangladesh by calling on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday morning at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

After the meeting with the PM, the UN chief will attend a session on 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda at the PMO.

He will then visit Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi and likely visit the Holy Cross Girls' High School in Tejgaon.

The UN secretary general will also meet the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in Bangladesh at Radisson Hotel in the afternoon while the WB President will be separately meeting WB officials in Dhaka at Radisson.

Guterres will then join a joint UN and WB staff members get together at Radisson in the afternoon.

The PM will host a dinner in honour of the UN secretary general at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel on Sunday evening, who will leave for Cox's Bazar by a special flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines on Monday morning and visit Konar Para (no man's land) where he will interact with the Rohingya refugees. Some 7,000 Rohingyas have been staying there since the crisis began.

Later, he will move to Kutupalong Extension Camp or the mega camp and visit the registration booth and women friendly spaces. He will interact with the refugees at Kutupalong mega camp.

The UN Chief will also hold a press briefing at Kutupalong Camp and a briefing session for local UN and government officials at a hotel in Cox's Bazar.

Guterres will return to Dhaka in the evening and hold a press briefing at Radisson Hotel. He will leave Dhaka at midnight on Monday.