The Nepal Weekly 
August 20, 2024
Muhammad Yunus, the interim leader of Bangladesh, delivering his first major government policy speech promised to support the Rohingya community seeking refuge in the country and maintain Bangladesh’s garment trade.
Setting out his priorities in front of diplomats and UN representatives on Sunday, Yunus assured that his government “will continue to support the million-plus Rohingya people sheltered in Bangladesh”.
“We need the sustained efforts of the international community for Rohingya humanitarian operations and their eventual repatriation to their homeland, Myanmar, with safety, dignity and full rights,” remarked Yunus.
Bangladesh is home to more than one million Rohingya, most of whom fled neighbouring Myanmar in 2017 following a military crackdown now the subject of a genocide investigation by a United Nations court.
Earlier this month, medical charity Doctors without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, said that more Rohingya are arriving in Bangladesh from Myanmar with war-related injuries amid escalating conflict between the military and the rebel Arakan Army (AA) in western Rakhine State.
More than 40 percent of the injured were women and children, it added in a statement. Yunus, an 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist, returned from Europe this month after he was picked by President Mohammed Shahabuddin to lead an interim government, responding to a key demand of the agitating student leaders. His predecessor deposed PM Sheikh Hasina, 76, fled the country on August 5 on army helicopter after 15 years in power, brought down by anti-government protests.
The weeks of turmoil and mass protests that toppled Hasina also witnssed widespread disruption to the country’s linchpin textile industry, with suppliers shifting orders out of the country.
“We won’t tolerate any attempt to disrupt the global clothing supply chain, in which we are a key player,” Yunus asserted. Bangladesh’s 3,500 garment factories account for about 85 percent of its $55bn in annual exports.
