Bangladesh‘s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, has called on the international community to work towards a practical roadmap for the safe and voluntary return of Rohingya refugees to their homeland in Myanmar.
Speaking at a conference in Cox’s Bazar, Yunus emphasized that justice and security are vital for the Rohingya before returning to Myanmar.
“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 safe and dignified, voluntary and sustainable return… The time is for action right now.”
Yunus unveiled a seven-point plan aimed at securing the refugees’ safe and voluntary return, which includes an immediate end to violence in Myanmar, creation of dialogue platforms to ease tensions between ethnic groups, and stronger involvement from ASEAN and regional powers to restore stability.
He also appealed to donors to reverse declining funding, stressing that increased support is essential to sustain life-saving aid programs.
The Rohingya refugees have been living in Bangladesh since August 2017, when nearly 800,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh following a brutal military crackdown that the United Nations has described as genocide.
Thousands more have arrived since then. Yunus acknowledged the enormous sacrifices made by the host community and the people of Bangladesh in providing shelter to the Rohingya refugees.
“The impact on our economy, resources, environment, ecosystem, society, and governance has been huge. I thank our host community and the people of Bangladesh for their wholehearted support and enormous sacrifices,” he said.
However, repatriation remains a daunting task due to ongoing fighting across the border. Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng, reporting from Cox’s Bazar, said thousands of Rohingya marched on Monday to demand justice and repatriation.
“People here we’ve been talking to, they’ve been out demonstrating around the camps today. They’re calling for two things. One is for justice for the genocide in 2017, eight years ago to this day. Secondly, about repatriating them.
They absolutely want to go home. This is at the top of everyone’s list of demands here,” he said. Cheng added that ongoing fighting across the border made any repatriation effort difficult. “It’s still a very unstable situation inside Myanmar. So what Bangladesh or the rest of the international communities can do to get them home at this stage is very hard to see.”
The Cox’s Bazar conference comes before a UN conference in New York on September 30, but prospects for a safe and swift return remain slim.
Bangladesh has registered more than 150,000 new arrivals since early 2024, even as fighting in Rakhine worsens and global funding dries up following United States President Donald Trump’s freeze on humanitarian aid.
The World Food Programme has warned that 57% of families in central Rakhine cannot meet basic food needs, and refugees in Bangladesh live on a monthly ration card worth about $12.