US Official to Discuss Plight of Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh

Posted June 6th, 2011 at 4:20 pm (UTC-5)
Leave a comment

The U.S. State Department says Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration Eric P. Schwartz will travel to Dhaka Tuesday to discuss the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and elsewhere in the region.

During his visit, Schwartz is scheduled to meet with government officials and international and non-governmental organizations for talks on humanitarian protection and assistance issues for the registered and undocumented Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

The State Department says Washington is deeply concerned about Rohingya plight and is working with the regional governments to reach a comprehensive solution to the situation.

More than 29,000 registered Rohingya refugees live in two official camps in Bangladesh's southeastern Cox's Bazar district. In addition, about the same number of undocumented Rohingya reside in two unofficial sites near the camps. Bangladeshi officials estimate that between 200,000 and 500,000 undocumented Rohingya reside in villages and towns outside the refugee camps.

Rohingyas are a Muslim minority with historical roots in Burma. However, that nation stripped them of citizenship in 1982, and Rohingyas say they are systematically and violently oppressed by Burmese security forces.

More than 200,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh, where some have spent decades in camps while being denied both immigration rights and formal refugee status.