B’desh wants ‘safe zones’ for Rohingyas

DHAKA: Bangladesh has proposed creating “safe zones” run by aid groups for Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine state to stop hundreds of thousands of refugees crossing into its territory following a military crackdown.

The plan, the latest floated by Dhaka, is unlikely to get much traction in Myanmar, where many consider the Rohingya community of 1.1 million as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. That will leave Bangladesh, one of the poorest nations in the world, with little choice but to open new camps for refugees.

Dhaka sent the proposal to the Myanmar government through the International Committee of the Red Cross to secure three areas in Rakhine, home to the Rohingya community, suggesting that people displaced by the violence be relocated there under the supervision of an international organisation such as the United Nations.

The Red Cross confirmed it had passed on the request to Myanmar but said it was a political decision for the two countries to make. A Myanmar government spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

The decades-old conflict in Rakhine flared most recently on August 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts and an army base. Since then, an estimated 270,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, joining more than 400,000 others already living there in cramped makeshift camps since the early 1990s.