DHAKA: Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh expressed concern and fear on Saturday over plans for them to return to neighboring Myanmar.
Leaders of the refugees, along with Bangladeshi officials, visited Myanmar on Friday to assess the possibility of repatriating the estimated 1.2 million Rohingya refugees currently in Bangladesh.
The 27-member delegation visited Myanmar’s Rakhine State, the area from which the majority of the Rohingya fled due to a military crackdown that began in October 2016.
The repatriation of Rohingya refugees has been on the United Nations’ agenda for years, but no practical progress has been made, despite pressure from Bangladesh.
The team which visited Rakhine State took part in a pilot Bangladesh-Myanmar project mediated by China. On their return, some Rohingya members of the delegation told the media that they would refuse to go back to Myanmar because, under the current proposal, they would not be granted citizenship.
Bangladeshi Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mizanur Rahman, who led the delegation, told Arab News that Myanmar authorities were proposing a National Verification Card scheme for returning refugees. While such alternative identification was widely criticized by rights groups when the idea was first floated by Myanmar in 2019, Rahman said it was still better than what the refugees were being offered in Bangladesh.
“It is better to have a life with some civil rights than a life without any civil rights,” he said. “It’s their own country. Here in the camps, Bangladesh has not even given them refugee status.”
Although it has been hosting the Rohingya for years, Bangladesh is not a signatory of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.
The violence the Rohingya community endured in Myanmar — which international observers have referred to as genocide or ethnic cleansing — understandably makes many reluctant to go back to their official homeland.
“What is the guarantee that we wouldn’t be tortured again by the military junta once we return?” Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, a Rohingya activist in Bangladesh, said. “We don’t want anything except our rights, so that we don’t turn into refugees again, not even after 100 years — our next generations must not turn into refugees. We want to solve this crisis, and the only solution is to ensure equal rights and provide citizenship rights to the Rohingya people.
“We just need citizenship, even if we are not given any other things,” he continued. “If we get citizenship, we can do the rest on our own; we will be able to earn money, study… we can do whatever is necessary for our community.”
If a peacekeeping mission could guarantee their protection in Myanmar, then the refugees would likely choose to return, he added.
“This process should involve the international community,” he said. “The US and other important countries should stand beside us.”
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has so far distanced itself from the current proposal, citing unsustainable conditions in military junta-ruled Myanmar.
For Mohammad Nur Khan, a Bangladeshi rights activist and migration expert, it is no surprise that the refugees are skeptical about what awaits them should they return to Myanmar.
“The Rohingya have been deceived for a long time. They were the subject of torture and atrocities. The team that visited (Myanmar) on Friday did not gain confidence from that visit,” he said.
Meeting the Rohingya community’s most fundamental demands — such as the issue of citizenship — is of utmost importance in building trust, Khan told Arab News.
“There will be no chance to reach a compromise through bypassing their main demands,” he said. “Without the involvement of all stakeholders and international aid agencies, I think it’s not possible to come to (an agreement).”
Rohingya reluctant to return to Myanmar with citizenship not guaranteed
https://arab.news/ctfvq
Rohingya reluctant to return to Myanmar with citizenship not guaranteed
- Delegation including Rohingya leaders visited Myanmar on Friday
- China is mediating Rohingya repatriation project
Bangladesh minister says Yunus ‘not going to step down’
- Muhammad Yunus had threatened to quit the job if parties did not give him their backing
- Yunus has promised polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest, but supporters of the BNP demanded he fix a date
Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who took over after a mass uprising last year, had threatened to quit the job if parties did not give him their backing, a political ally and sources in his office said.
The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since the student-led revolt that toppled then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, with parties protesting on the streets over a string of demands.
“For the sake of Bangladesh and a peaceful democratic transition, Professor Yunus needs to remain in office,” Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, a special assistant to Yunus, and head of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, said in a post on Facebook.
“The Chief Adviser is not going to step down,” he added. “He does not hanker after power.”
Bangladesh’s political crisis has escalated this week, with rival parties protesting on the streets of the capital Dhaka with a string of competing demands.
Yunus’s reported threat to stand down came after thousands of supporters of the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) rallied in Dhaka on Wednesday, holding large-scale protests against the interim government for the first time.
Yunus has promised polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest, but supporters of the BNP — seen as the front-runners in highly anticipated elections that will be the first since Hasina was overthrown — demanded he fix a date.
Yunus’s relationship with the military has also reportedly deteriorated.
According to local media and military sources, powerful army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said on Wednesday that elections should be held by December.
Taiyeb issued a warning to the army on Friday.
“The army can’t meddle in politics,” he wrote.
“The army doesn’t do that in any civilized country,” he added.
“By saying that the election has to be held by December, the military chief failed to maintain his jurisdictional correctness.”
UK newspaper The Telegraph set for US ownership
LONDON: British right-wing newspaper The Telegraph has agreed a deal that would see it purchased by US investment group RedBird Capital Partners for £500 million ($670 million), the pair announced Friday.
RedBird has struck an “in-principle agreement” to purchase The Telegraph Media Group (TMG), which comprises the 170-year-old paper’s print and online operations, a joint statement said.
It concludes a protracted sale lasting around two years, which has involved an intervention by the previous Conservative government.
US-Emirati consortium RedBird IMI had already struck a deal for TMG in late 2023.
However, the previous UK government triggered a swift resale amid concern over the potential impact on freedom of speech given Abu Dhabi’s press censorship record.
RedBird Capital Partners on Friday said the agreement struck with TMG makes it “the sole control owner” and “unlocks a new era of growth for the title” founded in 1855.
“RedBird’s growth strategy will include capital investment in digital operations, subscriptions and journalism as it looks to expand The Telegraph internationally.”
The US group added it is in “discussions with select UK-based minority investors with print media expertise and strong commitment to upholding the editorial values of The Telegraph.”
South Sudan refugees in Ethiopia face imminent ‘health catastrophe’
- A power-sharing agreement between the warring parties provided a fragile calm
- The NGO also announced that it had moved its medical services from the Ethiopian border town of Burbeiye to the more distant Mattar
ADDIS ABABA: South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia face an imminent “health catastrophe,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Friday, citing a cholera epidemic and cases of severe acute malnutrition.
South Sudan, the world’s youngest country after gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, was plunged into a violent civil war between 2013 and 2018 that claimed around 400,000 lives.
A power-sharing agreement between the warring parties provided a fragile calm, but it has all but collapsed as violent clashes have broken out between forces allied to President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, First Vice President Riek Machar, who was put under house arrest in March.
According to MSF, 35,000 to 85,000 South Sudanese refugees have fled to Mattar, an Ethiopian town near the border with South Sudan.
“The local infrastructure is stretched beyond capacity,” the NGO said in a statement, adding that “with the resurgence of waterborne diseases such as cholera and acute watery diarrhea, the risk of a health disaster is imminent.”
MSF said it had treated around 1,200 patients with cholera, a disease that can be fatal in 10-20 percent of cases.
“Over 40 percent of malaria rapid diagnostic tests have returned positive, and nearly 7 percent of children under five show signs of severe acute malnutrition,” MSF added.
The NGO also announced that it had moved its medical services from the Ethiopian border town of Burbeiye to the more distant Mattar due to armed clashes between “the South Sudanese army and an opposition group” along the border.
It has received more than 200 people with “war injuries” in Burbeiye since the fighting began in February, it said.
MSF urged the various parties to the conflict in South Sudan to “ensure a safe humanitarian space and protect civilians and aid workers alike,” and called on international donors to scale up assistance particularly in Mattar “where shelter, water and medical care are in too low supply for people who have fled horrific violence.”
Taliban in talks with Russia, China for trade transactions in local currencies
- Annual bilateral trade between Russia and Afghanistan is currently around $300 million
- Afghanistan’s financial sector has been largely cut off from the global banking system due to sanctions
KABUL: The Taliban administration is in advanced talks with Russia for banks from both sanctions-hit economies to settle trade transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars in their local currencies, Afghanistan’s acting commerce minister said.
The Afghan government has made similar proposals to China, the minister, Hajji Nooruddin Azizi, told Reuters on Thursday. Some discussions have been held with the Chinese embassy in Kabul, he said.
The proposal with Russia, Azizi said, was being worked on by technical teams from the two countries. The move comes as Moscow focuses on using national currencies to shift reliance away from the dollar and as Afghanistan faces a stark drop in the US currency entering the country due to aid cuts.
“We are currently engaged in specialized discussions on this matter, considering the regional and global economic perspectives, sanctions, and the challenges Afghanistan is currently facing, as well as those Russia is dealing with. Technical discussions are underway,” Azizi said in an interview at his office in Kabul.
The Chinese foreign ministry and the Russian central bank did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Azizi added that annual bilateral trade between Russia and Afghanistan was currently around $300 million and that was likely to grow substantially as the two sides boost investment. His administration expected Afghanistan to buy more petroleum products and plastics from Russia, he said.
“I am confident that this is a very good option...we can use this option for benefit and interests of our people and our country,’ Azizi said.
“We want to take steps in this area with China as well,” he said, adding Afghanistan had around $1 billion in trade with China each year. “A working team composed of members from the (Afghan) Ministry of Commerce and the Chinese embassy which is an authorized body representing China in economic programs has been formed, and talks are ongoing.”
Afghanistan’s financial sector has been largely cut off from the global banking system due to sanctions placed on some leaders of the ruling Taliban, which took over the country in 2021 as foreign forces withdrew.
Rivalry with China and fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine have put the dollar’s status as the world’s dominant currency under fresh scrutiny in recent years. In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin questioned the need to hold state reserves in foreign currencies since they could easily be confiscated for political reasons, saying that domestic investment of such reserves was more attractive.
The dollar has had a lock on commodity trading, allowing Washington to hinder market access for producer nations from Russia to Venezuela and Iran.
Afghanistan since 2022 has imported gas, oil and wheat from Russia, the first major economic deal after the Taliban returned to power facing international isolation following 20 years of war against US-led forces.
Billions of dollars in cuts to aid to Afghanistan, accelerated this year by the United States, have meant far fewer dollars, which are flown in cash for humanitarian operations, are entering the country.
Development agencies and economists say the Afghani currency has so far remained relatively stable but may face challenges in future.
Azizi said that the stability of the currency and his administration’s efforts to boost international investment including with the Afghan diaspora, would prevent a shortage of US dollars in the country.
Philippines’ Marcos keeps economic team, replaces foreign minister in cabinet revamp
- Marcos had asked all his cabinet secretaries to resign following the government’s disappointing performance in midterm elections last week
- Cabinet shake-up is widely seen as Marcos’ attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his term
MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will retain his trade, finance, budget and economic planning ministers but will replace the foreign minister in an overhaul of his cabinet, his executive secretary said on Friday.
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin announced the changes after Marcos had asked all his cabinet secretaries to resign following the government’s disappointing performance in midterm elections last week.
“The president decided to retain these five members of the economic team so that there will be no more problems of perception about where the country is going,” Bersamin told a briefing.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo will be replaced by his undersecretary, Theresa Lazaro, who will take the helm from July 31. Manalo was named as the country’s permanent representative to the United Nations.
The environment secretary will be replaced by the energy secretary, Bersamin said, adding the performance review was ongoing and decisions would be announced as they are made.
“More action will be coming,” he said.
The cabinet shake-up is widely seen as Marcos’ attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term after a bruising midterm election and in the wake of falling approval ratings.
