Ambassador of Myanmar to Bangladesh Myo Myint Than was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to meet Ambassador Kamrul Ahsan, Secretary (Bilateral & Consular) in the afternoon today.
During the meeting, Ahsan expressed deep concern at the continued influx of Muslims from the Rakhine State of Myanmar into Bangladesh. He mentioned that around 50,000 Myanmar citizens took shelter into Bangladesh since 9 October 2016. There are around 3,00,000 Myanmar nationals staying in Bangladesh for years. The Secretary (Bilateral & Consular) demanded early repatriation of entire Myanmar population staying in Bangladesh and expressed Bangladesh’s readiness to engage with Myanmar to discuss process and modalities of repatriation with Myanmar. He also requested the Myanmar government to urgently address the “root cause” of the problem in the Rakhine State so that Rakhine Muslims are not required to desperately seek shelter across the border.
Bangladesh also protested the unprovoked attack and firing on a Bangladeshi fishing boat named ‘FV JANIVA KHALEDA 1 on 27 December 2016 fishing off the south-east of the Saint Martin’s Island within Bangladesh’s territorial water by a Myanmarese trawler that left 4 Bangladeshi fishermen seriously injured. Ahsan mentioned that the Myanmarese trawler with armed people on board took the Bangladeshi fishing boat along with the fishermen including the injured ones to a nearby patrolling Myanmarese Navy vessel. Myanmar navy personnel seized the belongings of the fishermen and released them after 4 hours. Secretary (Bilateral & Consular) demanded appropriate investigation into the matter, bring the responsibles to justice and sought assurance that the Myanmarese Navy would abstain from attacking innocent fishermen of Bangladesh in future.