Rohingya at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. Photo: AFP
Rohingya at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. Photo: AFP

Canada wants to play a role in solving the Rohingya refugee crisis, The Bangladesh Chronicle and New Age reported on February 5. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s special envoy to Myanmar, Bob Rae, stressed during a recent visit to Bangladesh the need for productive initiatives to solve the crisis.

Rae said after a meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen that “talks are underway, but we don’t know whether they’ll be successful.” So far, no refugees have been repatriated to Myanmar.

According to estimates by United Nations agencies and the Bangladesh foreign ministry, the number of “undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh is 1,116,000,” news sites reported. “This is not just a problem for Myanmar and Bangladesh, but will be an issue for other countries in this region,” Rae said.

There are another 40,000 Rohingya refugees in India who arrived there before the Myanmar military launched a campaign in Rohingya-inhabited areas of northern Rakhine State in 2017, which resulted in a massive exodus to Bangladesh.

On February 6, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Momen will travel to India to seek support to resolve the Rohingya crisis, stressing it is an issue that could affect regional security, The Indian Express reported on February 5.

But India’s Hindu-nationalist government sees the Rohingyas, who are Muslims, as a potential security risk. Indian authorities have started rounding up Rohingyas and sending them to Bangladesh in what appears to be a preemptive move to make sure no refugees try to leave the camps and go to India.

Indian authorities have also ceased to recognize UNHCR-issued refugee cards issued to Rohingyas in India. About 18,000 Rohingyas in India were registered with the UNHCR, Al Jazeera reported on January 29.

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94 Comments

  1. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You obviously know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your blog when you could be giving us something informative to read?

  2. Looks like you had solved the gravatar puzzle without even realizing it! (Thanks for lending a hand, fillipo.)
    Bingo. That’s most likely what’s happening. Those other sites probably do not support gravatar. Shame, too… gravatar is awesome.

  3. I have a question about leaving links in comments. Do you think it’s OK to leave comments to posts I wrote if they are relevant to the topic of the post being commented?
    this is great piece of advice. Very well written and lots of good examples. ( See, I’m already applying what you suggest ???? )

  4. I’m glad you enjoyed the post! Thanks for the kind words (and the promise to share).
    For example, if I wrote a post “How NOT to write blog comments”, would it be OK to link to it from comments, and not look like a spammer? I would really love to know what is the common etiquette.

  5. Probably not the answer you wanted to hear, though. The good news? There are LOTS of other ways (good, ethical ways) to promote your content. The posts here at Smart Blogger are full of great ideas. I’ve yet to read a post here that I couldn’t recommend to others!
    Truth? I don’t believe it’s the right approach. If obeying common blogging etiquette is your goal, you shouldn’t leave links inside your comments. There’s a reason I listed it as “Mistake #3” in the post. Even if it’s a good link to a good, relevant post; it will be viewed as the act of a spammer peddling their own work.