Remarking that it is Myanmar’s responsibility to take its nationals back, a senior U.S. official has said that the international community needs to put more pressure on Myanmar to resolve the Rohingya issue.
Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne C. Richard, who wrapped up her four-day visit to Bangladesh, also said the U.S. did not favour settling the Rohingya refugees to a third country.
Responding to a question, she, however, said the Rohingya refugees in the two camps in Cox’s Bazar district preferred to stay in Bangladesh despite not having an ideal living condition.
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The visiting U.S. official on Wednesday commented that Rohingyas deserve Myanmarese citizenship to end their statelessness, which she identified as a root cause of their plight. Speaking at seminar here, Ms. Richard remarked that he Rohingya population remained stateless as “they are not recognised as a distinct ethnic group in the country’s citizenship law”. “Statelessness is… a key reason they flee to neighbouring countries,” she added.
Ms. Richard arrived in Dhaka from Myanmar, her first after joining the post in Washington in 2012, “to learn the Bangladesh perspective” of the refugee situation. Bangladesh has sheltered thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled the Rakhine province following sectarian clashes spread over the years.