Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah
PUTRAJAYA: Efforts made by Asean foreign ministers in assisting the Rohingya community in Bangladesh to go back to Myanmar is on the principle that such an issue should be undertaken by the Asean block as a family, said Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.
He said the Asean foreign ministers were trying their level best to ensure safe passage for the Rohingya community to return to Rakhine, Myanmar as without such assurance the Rohingya community will decline to return to their homeland.
“The target is for the repatriation to begin after the year-end rainy season.
So the repatriation is expected to begin early next year,” he told reporters when met after attending a forum at Wisma Putra here yesterday.
In ensuring the Rohingya community’s safe and secure journey home Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and Thailand Foreign Minister, Don Paramudwinai would go to Myanmar at end of the month to talk to Myanmar on the matter, he said.
The two ministers were chosen because Singapore was the present chair of Asean while Thailand would be the next chairman, he said.
“Besides Myanmar, the two foreign ministers will also talk to Bangladesh in understanding the dynamics in Myanmar-Bangladesh relations,” he added.
Saifuddin said Asean foreign ministers decided to help the Rohingya community in ensuring their safety and security when they met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month.
The humanitarian crisis in the state of Rakhine, Myanmar resulted in more than one million Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh and taking shelter at refugee camps at Cox’s Bazar. — Bernama