Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday reiterated her call to the international community to do much more to ensure safe, sustainable and dignified return of over one million forcibly displaced Rohingyas from Bangladesh.
“Bangladesh has been hosting 1.1 million forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals. This humanitarian crisis poses a serious security threat,” the prime minister said in her recorded speech at the 78th Session of the UNESCAP.
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“We expect enhanced focus and active support of the international community for safe, sustainable and dignified return of these displaced people,” she told the session meeting under the theme ‘A common agenda to advance sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific’.
She said that when the world is struggling to recover from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict came as a huge blow to the global economic and social stability.
“The poor and developing countries are experiencing the brunt of the war. The war must be stopped immediately and joint actions are needed to tackle the situation,” she said.
She mentioned the pandemic battered the health systems and economies of most of the countries across the world where the poor and developing countries were the worst sufferers.
“In Bangladesh, while tackling the pandemic, we have tried to strike a balance between lives and livelihoods. Our timely and prudent interventions greatly helped manage the macroeconomic stability,” she said.
While many countries in South Asia experienced negative or nominal GDP growth, she said, we maintained a commendable growth during the pandemic.
She mentioned that Bangladesh is expecting over 7 per cent GDP growth in 2021-22.
“We have already brought almost all targeted population under vaccination,” she said.
