The government on Monday briefed diplomats over the recently held census on undocumented Rohingya nationals living in Bangladesh and progress over the upcoming GFMD Summit. Foreign Secretary and Chair of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) Md Shahidul Haque briefed the diplomats and representatives of the UN agencies on the two issues at the state guesthouse Padma in the afternoon.
Talking to reporters after the briefing, the Foreign Secretary said Bangladesh is the current chair of the GFMD and its next summit will be held here in December. “We’re hoping that many ministers and various level delegates will attend the summit. We’ve informed the diplomats about the progress made so far over the event,” Haque said. Dhaka, UNB News Agency Reported.
The 9th GFMD Summit is scheduled to be held in Dhaka on December 10-12 2016. As 2016 marks the first year after the adoption of the Agenda, the summit will be held under the overarching theme “Migration that works for Sustainable Development of All: Towards a Transformative Migration Agenda.”
Meanwhile, the government has recently conducted the first-ever census on the undocumented Myanmar nationals living in Bangladesh. “Survey on undocumented Myanmar nationals has already been conducted,” the Foreign Secretary said adding he along with additional secretary of the Statistics Division informed them (diplomats) about the survey.
Responding to a question, Haque said the outcome of the census will be finalised in November-December, and then they will talk about the outcome. “We’ve just informed them about the process.” He said the census will help implement the strategy on Rohingya issues. Bangladesh is a home to 32,000 documented Rohingya refugees and they have taken shelter in two camps in the south-eastern district of Cox’s Bazar.
But their number is dwarfed by the almost 300,000 who are living illegally in the district, according to the primary outcome of government census, held from February 1 to 23 to identify Rohingya families in Bangladesh.
