Japanese Ambassador in Dhaka Ito Naoki has said his country was considering resettlement of some Rohingyas to Japan, as Bangladesh tries to ease its load of over a million refugees who fled their homes in Myanmar to evade persecution.
“Japan has received the request about third-country resettlement (of Rohingyas) from your (Bangladesh) government. UNHCR is also advising us to consider the possibility (to take Rohingyas to Japan),” the outgoing envoy told BSS, ahead of leaving Dhaka, ending his tenure.
Naoki, however, said approximately 300 Rohingyas were already living in a city 100 kilometres north of Tokyo. But in line with a general policy, Japan was a bit cautious about foreign refugees, though there were precedence when his country provided such refuge.
“So, there is a base of (Rohingya) community there (in Japan), but at the moment we are yet to come to any conclusion,” said the ambassador, who left Dhaka last night.
Bangladesh Foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen earlier said he had urged the United States, Britain and Japan to share Bangladesh’s burden of huge number of Rohingyas.
Momen told the newsmen that he suggested that each of these countries could take at least one lakh of the forcibly displaced people who fled their home in Myanmar’s Rakhine state amid a military-backed racial crackdown in 2017.
Despite repeated insistence Myanmar so far did not take back a single Rohingyas, defying their assurances.
The United States has taken 24 Rohingyas last week in a symbolic response to Dhaka’s request while Momen called the development a “drop in the ocean”.
Diplomatic sources, however, said the US informed Dhaka it would take some Rohingyas from Bangladesh every year while shortlisted 62 of them for the first batch.
“We know repatriation is the (only) solution to this issue and Myanmar is the only country which could provide the solution by allowing Rohingya refugees to go back in a safe, voluntary and dignified manner,” Naoki said.
He added Tokyo “seriously hope” Myanmar-Bangladesh consultation process would come to an end and repatriation will be started in earliest possible time.
Ito said Japan would continue to cooperate with Bangladesh government and do its best to stabilize the situation in Rakhaine state and to improve the political situation in Myanmar but preferred to use the word “mediation”.
“We still have the prospect for repatriation. So, we will continue our cooperation toward your government, we will continue our funding towards UN agencies,” Naoki said.
He said Tokyo has increased the amount of funding for Rohingyas this year providing $27.8 million for the displaced people and host community in Bangladesh, while the amount was $5 million last year.
The ambassador said Tokyo’s focus towards the crisis was manifested through this enhanced allocation despite the Russia-Ukraine War situation amid speculations that the Japanese overseas assistance could be diverted largely towards Ukraine.
He said that Japan’s contribution to UN refugee agency was increasing to help them handling the Rohingya crisis.
“I think that is the clear demonstration that we are still focusing on this (Rohingya) crisis. We are still doing our best to alleviate the living condition of Rohingyas both inside Cox’s Bazar and Bhashanchar camps,” said the envoy.
Since August 25 in 2017, Bangladesh has been hosting over 1.2 million forcefully displaced Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar district and most of them arrived there after a military crackdown by Myanmar, which the UN called a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" and other rights groups dubbed as "genocide".
No Rohingya could go back home in the last five years while repatriation attempts failed twice due to trust deficit among the forcibly displaced people about their safety and security in Rakhine state.
The Bangladesh government has been urging the developed nations to take factions of Rohingyas from Bangladesh as third country resettlement while repatriation attempts to Myanmar repeatedly failed.
