Guterres to visit Bangladesh, meet Yunus, participate in Iftar with Rohingya refugees

United Nations, Feb 28 (IANS) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit Bangladesh next month to participate in an Iftar with Rohingya refugees in Cox Bazar, according to his Spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric.

He will also go to Dhaka and meet with Muhammed Yunus, the interim administration’s head, during the trip from March 13 to 16, Dujarric said on Thursday.

Guterres visits “a Muslim community which is facing distress” as a sign of “Ramadan solidarity”, and this year chose to visit the refugees from Myanmar in Bangladesh, Dujarric said.

He will also be with “Bangladeshi communities who have been generously hosting the refugees from Myanmar,” the spokesperson said.

Guterres started the custom of visiting a Muslim community during Ramadan when he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

“The plight of the Rohingyas is something that is extremely close to his heart,” having “dealt directly with the Rohingya crisis” while in that office, he said.

Bangladesh, he said, is hosting over a million Rohingya who have fled Myanmar. “The biggest refugee communities are often in developing countries, and often in very poor developing countries who open their hearts and open their homes to people seeking shelter,” Dujarric said.

“Every Ramadan, I undertake a solidarity visit and fast with a Muslim community around the globe. These missions remind the world of the true face of Islam,” Guterres said in his message.

Rohingyas began fleeing to Bangladesh in large numbers starting in August 2017 when the Myanmar forces launched a massive campaign against them in retaliation for the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army’s (ARSA) attacks on police and civilians. The civilian victims included Hindus, of whom nearly 100 were killed, according to Amnesty International.

The United Nations has described the Rohingya as “the most persecuted minority in the world”.

–IANS

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