Highlights
- Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina spoke about Rohingya migrants in her country.
- She said millions of Rohingyas are a "big burden" on the country and she feel India could help.
- She said Rohingyas in Bangladesh had created challenges for her regime.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in an exclusive interview with news agency ANI spoke about Rohingya migrants, and how they are a "big burden" on the country. Reaching out to the international community over the issue, she said India could play a major role in resolving it. She also confessed that the presence of lakhs of Rohingyas in Bangladesh had created challenges for her regime.
"Well you know... for us it's a big burden. India is a vast country; you can accommodate but you don't have much. But in our country... we have 1.1 million Rohingya. So well... we are consulting with the international community and also our neighbouring countries, they should also take some steps so that they can go back home," Hasina said. The Bangladesh prime minister said that her government had tried to take care of the displaced community keeping the humanitarian aspect in mind.
"This Rohingya, yes... on humanitarian ground we give them shelter and providing everything but during this COVID, we vaccinated all the Rohingya community. But how long they will stay here? So in the camp they are staying. Our environment hazard is there. Then some people engage in drug trafficking or some arms conflict, women trafficking. Day by day it is increasing. So as quick as they return home it is good for our country and also for Myanmar. So we have been trying our best to pursue them, we're discussing with them and also the international community, like ASEAN or UNO, then other countries," Hasina said.
Sheikh Hasina lauds PM Modi for evacuating Bangladeshi students from Ukraine
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi led initiative towards rescuing students of her country who were stuck in eastern Europe following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. In a free-wheeling television interaction with ANI, Prime Minister Hasina, who is set to visit India on Monday, also lavished praise on the Modi government's gesture of providing Covid-19 vaccines to neighbouring countries under its Vaccine Maitri programme when the pandemic was fast-spreading.
The Bangladesh prime minister emphasized on closer cooperation between the two neighbours. There can be differences but these should be addressed through dialogue, she said adding that in a number of areas, India and Bangladesh had precisely done that.
"Bangladesh will not face any Sri Lanka type crisis"
Dismissing concerns that Bangladesh could go the Sri Lanka way, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that despite the Covid-19 onslaught and the conflict in Ukraine, her country's economy continued to be in robust shape and that her regime exercised a high level of diligence when taking any loans. In an interaction with ANI, Prime Minister Hasina said that currently the world as a whole was facing challenges which were not restricted only to Bangladesh.
"Our economy, still it is very strong. Though, we faced this Covid-19 pandemic, now the Ukraine-Russia war. That has its effect here. But in debt rate, Bangladesh always pays timely all its debts. So our debt rate is very low. In the context of Sri Lanka, our economic trajectory and the development, it is (planned) very, very calculatingly," said the Bangladesh prime minister.
