KUALA LUMPUR, April 13 — Bangladesh hopes Malaysia would play an instrumental role to move the issue of Rohingya refugees forward within Asean and help Bangladesh achieve a durable solution to this crisis.

Bangladesh High Commissioner to Malaysia Md Golam Sarwar said Malaysia was one of the countries that had immediately responded to Bangladesh’s call for assistance during the early weeks of the Rohingya crisis in 2017.

He said Malaysia has also been a dependable supporter of Bangladesh on this issue in various international fora, including in the Asean Summit and the UN General Assembly.

“We are thankful to the government of Malaysia for their efforts in setting up field hospital in Cox’s Bazaar to provide medical assistance to the Rohingya refugees.

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“We remain grateful to Malaysia for extending such moral support to Bangladesh. We hope that Malaysia would continue its political pressure on Myanmar so that the latter creates a conducive environment in the Northern Rakhine State in order to ensure repatriation of the forcibly displaced Rohingyas in Myanmar at the earliest,” he said at the Ambassador Global Lecture Programme organised by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) yesterday.

The lecture, which was held virtually, was titled “50 years of diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and Malaysia and the way forward”.

The ambassador added that Bangladesh has been hosting more than 1.1 million Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled violence in Myanmar in 2017. — Bernama

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