Dhaka:
Bangladesh is beneath “no obligation” to shelter 81 Rohingya Muslim refugees adrift for virtually two weeks on the Andaman Sea and becoming assisted by India, mentioned Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen.
India’s coast guard discovered the 81 survivors and eight dead crammed onto a crippled fishing boat and had been attempting to arrange for Bangladesh to take them, officials mentioned on Friday.
But Momen told Reuters late on Friday that Bangladesh expects India, the closest nation, or Myanmar, the Rohingyas’ nation of origin, to accept them.
“They are not Bangladesh nationals and in fact, they are Myanmar nationals. They were found 1,700 km (1,100 miles) away from the Bangladesh maritime territory and therefore, we have no obligation to take them,” mentioned Momen, who is in the United States.
“They were located 147 km (91 miles) away from Indian territory, 324 km (201 miles) away from Myanmar,” he mentioned by phone, adding other nations and organisations need to take care of the refugees.
Indian foreign ministry officials did not respond to requests for comment.
External Affairs Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava mentioned on Thursday that India was “in discussions with the Government of Bangladesh to ensure their safe and secure repatriation.”
New Delhi did not sign the 1951 Refugee Convention, which spells out refugee rights and state responsibilities to defend them. Nor does it have a law guarding refugees, although it at the moment hosts more than 200,000, such as some Rohingya.
More than 1 million Rohingya refugees from predominantly Buddhist Myanmar are living in teeming camps in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, such as tens of thousands who fled following Myanmar’s military carried out a deadly crackdown in 2017.
Traffickers normally lure Rohingya refugees with promises of work in Southeast Asian nations like Malaysia.
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, expressed alarm this week more than the missing boat.
India on Thursday mentioned about 47 of the occupants of the boat are in possession of ID cards issued to them by the UNHCR workplace in Bangladesh, stating that they are displaced Myanmar nationals.
NO “GLOBAL CONTRACT” TO Help REFUGEES
The refugees have been drifting in international waters following leaving southern Bangladesh on February 11 in the hope of reaching Malaysia.
On Saturday, they had been beneath the help and surveillance of India as officials had been holding talks to return them to Bangladesh, mentioned the senior Indian official who is not authorised to speak to the media.
The boat, which sailed from the enormous Cox’s Bazar refugee camp, was carrying 56 girls, eight girls, 21 males and 5 boys.
Many of the survivors, according to Indian officials, had been sick and suffering from intense dehydration, obtaining run out of meals and water following the boat’s engine failed 4 days into their journey.
“Has Bangladesh been given the global contract and responsibility to take and rehabilitate all the Rohingya or boat people of the world?” Momen mentioned. “No, not at all.”
Momen mentioned the UNHCR need to also take duty as numerous individuals on the boat hold ID cards from the UNHCR workplace in Bangladesh.
“If (the refugees) are UNHCR card holders, why did they allow traffickers to take their card holders to adrift on the high sea leading to death?”
UNHCR officials had been not promptly reachable for comment.