'Rohingya refugee count hit 1.3m in BD as 35,000 children born every year'

Foreign minister Hasan Mahmud has said that the number of forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals in Bangladesh has risen to 1.3 million, with approximately 35,000 children born in the refugee camps each year.

Repatriation of the Rohingya people to Myanmar has become a major challenge and security concern in Cox’s Bazar and the adjacent region, said the minister while speaking as the chief guest during the launching of the World Migration Report 2024 at an event in the capital on Tuesday.

The visiting International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director General Amy Pope launched the report officially in Dhaka for the first time outside of Geneva. 

Millions of migrants Bangladeshis working abroad are significantly contributing to the country’s development, said the minister urging IOM to work in favour of the migration and their welfare.

Mentioning the plight of thousands of people displaced by the war in Ukraine and the Israeli attack on Gaza, the Foreign Minister said that natural disasters and climate change have long been linked to human displacement, which it is time to take into account and act collectively to resolve.

Millions of Bangladeshis are displaced internally and victims of forced internal migration due to the global climate effects.

nsrafsanju@gmail.com