Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus has warned that his country can no longer provide additional support for the 1.5 million Rohingya refugees it shelters, calling on the international community to work on a roadmap for the voluntary return of the persecuted minority back to their homeland in Myanmar.
Speaking in Cox’s Bazar on Monday at a two-day conference marking eight years since the mass expulsion of the mostly Muslim minority from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Yunus unveiled a seven-point plan aimed at securing the refugees’ safe and voluntary return.
“Their right to return to their own home and homeland has to be secured,” he said, urging all parties to develop “a practical roadmap for their return.”
Yunus urged governments worldwide to stand firm against Myanmar’s “heinous crime of ethnic cleansing” and to reconsider their relations with the country’s military regime.
He also called for renewed momentum in accountability efforts at the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, insisting that justice was central to ending the genocide and ensuring the Rohingya’s safe return.
Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng, reporting from Cox’s Bazar, said thousands of Rohingya marched to demand justice and repatriation as they observed the Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day.
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