Dhaka rubbishes ‘Malaysian proposition’ to take in 269 Rohingyas

Bangladesh has outright rejected a reported Malaysian plan to ask Dhaka to take in 269 Rohingyas who managed to land on its soil, with the foreign minister saying Dhaka was neither obligated nor willing to do so.

"Bangladesh will not take them [Rohingyas]," Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told BSS late last night when asked about international media reports on the Malaysian plan.

The minister also said Bangladesh would have no say if a Rohingya was detained in Malaysian territory.

"Rohingyas are not Bangladeshi citizens; rather they have been inhabitants of Myanmar for centuries," Momen said.

The Bangladesh foreign minister's comments came hours after international media reported that Malaysia had detained 260 Rohingyas and would ask Bangladesh to them.

Momen said Dhaka would not shoulder the responsibility of the Rohingyas in Malaysia and "will welcome the global leaders and organisations to relocate the persecuted 1.1 million Rohingyas who are now in temporary shelters in Bangladesh".

"Other countries are also welcome to take them [from Bangladesh]," he added.

A Bangladesh foreign ministry official in Dhaka earlier told an international news agency that the Rohingyas detained in Malaysia were the responsibility of Myanmar.

According to media reports, Malaysian authorities arrested the 269 Rohingyas and retrieved the body of a woman from a damaged boat near the Malaysian island of Langkawi, off its northwestern coast.

Quoting Malaysia's defence minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Reuters reported that Kuala Lumpur might ask for the migrants to be placed on Bangladesh's Bhasan Char island where Bangladesh had earlier planned to re-settle Rohingya refugees.

"Malaysia also plans to ask United Nations refugee agency UNHCR to re-settle Rohingya migrants in a third country," the report quoted him as saying as well.

Bangladesh hosts over 1.1 million forcefully displaced Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar district and most of them arrived there since August 25, 2017 after a military crackdown by Myanmar, which the UN called a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" and other rights groups dubbed as "genocide".

Even after almost three years, not a single Rohingya went back home yet, even as Myanmar agreed to take them back.

On May 21, the foreign minister has also called upon the European Union (EU) countries to share with Bangladesh the burden of sheltering persecuted by relocating them in Europe or other countries.

"Providing shelter to Rohingyas was not the responsibility of Bangladesh alone," he said while joining a video conference with head of mission of 10 EU countries stationed here.