Rohingyas must return to Myanmar: PM to Bachelet

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday reiterated her call to Myanmar to take back home the country's more than one million Rohingya nationals from their temporary shelter in Bangladesh.

"The Rohingyas are the nationals of Myanmar and they have to be taken back," the prime minister told the visiting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet who called on her at her official residence Ganobhaban.

PM's press secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed the media after the meeting.

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He quoted the PM as telling the UN rights chief that Myanmar neither refuses that Rohingyas are not their nationals, nor is taking them back to their homeland.

Bachelet, a former president of Chile, proposed to increase opportunities for education and work for the Rohingya nationals sheltered in Bangladesh.

 In reply, the Prime Minister said such initiatives will not be possible in Coxs’ Bazar, according to the press secretary.

She, however, informed the visiting UN High Commissioner that such steps can be taken at Bhashan Char where more than 20 thousand Rohingyas have been shifted already to provide them with better basic facilities.

They both discussed various issues including the Russia-Ukraine war, Rohingya crisis, climate change, and women empowerment, said the press secretary.