'EU maintains double standard on Rohingya situation in Bangladesh'

THE PEN Bangladesh, a bilingual society of Bangladesh-based writers has accused the European Union (EU) of having a double standard on the Rohingya crisis.

According to a media report, a remark was made at a virtual conference organised by the PEN Bangladesh on International Refugee Day.

“We will start writing to the European organisations, because the EU countries are showing intense double standards in terms of their policies, including for vaccines. From atrocities in Palestine to the Rohingya situation in Bangladesh, they are completely silent, the president of PEN Bangladesh Prof Syed Manzoorul Islam said at the event on Sunday (20).

International Organisation of Migration (IOM) programme officer Asif Munier and Dhaka Tribune special correspondent Humyun Kabir Bhuiyan attended the discussion as special guests.

Munier said, "Bhashan Char has received praise from national and international watchdogs, but it is not a permanent solution. The Rohingyas themselves want to repatriate, but Bangladesh can do very little to solve this situation.

"The global community maintains a double standard. They did not give much importance to the humanitarian crisis in the UN assembly last year, as 119 countries voted for Myanmar. It shows that global platforms are not very interested in solving this issue."

From his long experience of working on the refugee issue, the journalist Bhuiyan said, "We repatriated Rohingyas before in 1978 and 1992, but the problem now is different. This time, the army, who pushed these people away, are in power."

He mentioned that superpowers like Japan, Korea, US, even countries like Indonesia and Malaysia have huge investments in Myanmar. "They will never go beyond their own interests to solve this matter," he added.