Govt to consider extending field hospital operation in Cox’s Bazaar

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KUALA LUMPUR: The government will consider the need to extend the operation of the Malaysian field hospital in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh to 2021.

Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu said Bangladesh had welcomed the contribution of the Malaysian field hospital and is hoping for it to extend its operation.

“For the proposal, the government is still considering the matter by taking into account its impact on Rohingnya refugees,” he said.

He was replying to a question by Nik Nazami Nik Ahmad (PH-Setiawangsa) who wanted to know the effectiveness of operating the Malaysian field hospital and the direction in the involvement of Malaysia in the Rohingya humanitarian crisis at Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

At the same time, Mohamad said the government agreed to extend the operation of the hospital until Dec 31.

In this regard, Mohamad said the issue of increasing Rohingya refugees in Malaysia and Cox ‘s Bazaar was raised between Malaysia’s Defence Ministry and Myanmar.

He said Myanmar has given its assurance several times that it was ready to accept back refugees with identity.

“Nonetheless, the problem we are facing now is that there are among those who moved here have no identity, no citizenship and so on.

“The matter on whether they are without citizenship on purpose or not needs further research. But the problem is that there are more than 160,000 refugees in Malaysia and the government is helping whatever it could,” he said.

Mohamad was replying to a supplementary question by Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican (BN-Kepala Batas) on whether the ministry is using military diplomacy to resolve the problem of Rohingya refgugees. – Bernama