According to Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam, the United States (US) would continue to provide aid to the Rohingya people in Bangladesh. In appreciation of this decision, Chief Advisor Dr. Muhammad Yunus thanked US President Donald Trump for allowing the US aid freeze to not apply to life-saving food and nutrition assistance for the displaced Rohingya who are being housed in Bangladesh. According to a statement from the CA’s press wing, “High Representative Dr. Khalilur Rahman was visited this afternoon by officials of the US Embassy in Dhaka and informed him about this exemption.”
At a press conference held at the Foreign Service Academy this evening, CA’s Deputy Press Secretary Apurba Jahangir also attested to the development, according to UNB. Referring to USAID’s nutrition help for Rohingya refugees, Apurba stated that this aid will not be impacted. The briefing was attended by Deputy Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad Majumder and Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Shafiqul Alam.
A recent executive order by US President Donald Trump suspended US aid to all nations for 90 days while it was reviewed; the decision was not country-specific. At the foreign ministry, Foreign Adviser Touhid Hossain told reporters, “It’s not country specific,” when the executive order came to his notice. [1]
Shafiqul Alam added that 170 nations are anticipated to attend a major international meeting the government is organising on the Rohingya issue later this year. The conference will be co-hosted by the United Nations.
Shafiqul mentioned the top adviser’s recent visit to Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum as “a historic visit,” highlighting that Dr. Yunus attended at least 47 events at the meeting. [2]
Rohingya People in Bangladesh
Rohingya refugees have been moving from Myanmar to Bangladesh since the 1970s. Over 250,000 people lived in Bangladeshi refugee camps in the 1990s. All but 20,000 of them were sent back to Myanmar in the early 2000s, some of them against their will. After this reprieve ended in 2015, between 300,000 and 500,000 Rohingya refugees were thought to be in Bangladesh by 2017. The majority of the refugees are situated around the Naf River, which separates Bangladesh and Myanmar, and the Teknaf-Cox’s Bazar route. The majority of the refugees reside in or close to Cox’s Bazar, a tourist-dependent coastal region. 
According to a controversial and unverified notion, many Buddhists in Myanmar view the Rohingyas, a Muslim minority, as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. The government of Bangladesh has urged Myanmar to bring back the Rohingyas, who have been living there for generations. According to some, they are the most oppressed group in the world and are not granted citizenship in Myanmar. Persecuting the Rohingyas is something Myanmar has denied.
References:
- The Daily Star
- Dhaka Tribune
