The UN secretary general will visit Bangladesh in mid-March and meet Rohingya refugees who fled persecution in Myanmar in 2017 and are since sheltered in the country’s southeastern Cox’s Bazar district, it was confirmed on Tuesday.
Antonio Guterres will visit Bangladesh from March 13-16, his office said, according to the Bangladesh mission at the UN.
The confirmation follows an invitation from the head of the transitional government Muhammad Yunus, who took charge after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government following a student-led uprising last August.
In a letter to Yunus on Tuesday, Guterres said the UN will continue to mobilize the international community “to support Bangladesh as a host to the Rohingya.”
“I will continue to exercise my good offices, including through my Special Envoy on the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, to work closely with regional actors, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other stakeholders, towards a political solution to the crisis in Myanmar, including creating conditions conducive to the safe and voluntary return of the Rohingya to Rakhine,” Guterres said.
UN Special Envoy on Myanmar Julie Bishop met Yunus in Dhaka on Sunday, and confirmed that Guterres would visit the South Asian country in mid-March.
Julie discussed with Yunus matters related to the Rohingya crisis and how to mobilize new donors for humanitarian assistance of the over 1 million refugees.