Rohingya from India: Dhaka sends “note verbale” to Delhi

Bangladesh has asked India to take measures to halt entry of the Rohingya as Dhaka reported the arrival of some Myanmar nationals in the past weeks.

“We’ve sent a note verbale,” Mashfee Binte Shams, secretary (east) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told UNB on Sunday.

Earlier on Tuesday, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said a good number of Rohingya are coming to Bangladesh from India through fenced areas in recent times which he described as a matter of worry.

“Unfortunately, many Rohingya are coming to Bangladesh from India,” he said, adding that those Rohingya went to India in 2012.

Bangladesh is currently hosting over 1.1 million (11 lakh) Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar district and Bhasan Char Island.

Momen said the Rohingya who are coming after nine years have heard that they will have good food facilities in Cox’s Bazar.

He said their relatives in Cox’s Bazar apparently conveyed to the Rohingya in India that they are living happily in Cox’s Bazar with good food supply. “As a result, they (Rohingya) are getting into Bangladesh in groups.”

The foreign minister said the bad news is that they are coming through fenced areas through brokers at both ends of the Bangladesh-India border.

He said recently 18 Rohingya have been detained and they are coming in groups. “We have to engage more security forces to stop them.”

Momen said the government is not only seeking support from the Chinese government but also from other countries including the US, Japan, Malaysia and Cambodia.

He said the Rohingya should go back to Myanmar as they are Myanmar citizens. “They don’t go there but come here,” he observed.