United Nations secretary general Ant贸nio Guterres is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka at about 5:00pm today on a four-day visit to Bangladesh.
Chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus, along with Ant贸nio Guterres, will visit Rohingya camps in Cox鈥檚 Bazar tomorrow and join an Iftar party with about 1,00,000 Rohingyas at the camps to be arranged on behalf of the chief adviser.
The chief adviser鈥檚 deputy press secretary Abul Kalam Azad Majumder came up with the information on Wednesday at a press briefing at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka.
He also said that on Saturday Guterres will meet UN officials in an exchange-of-views meeting at the UN office in Dhaka.
Later on the day, he will join a roundtable meeting at his hotel and hold discussions with the youths of Bangladesh and civil society representatives and will also have a meeting with the National Consensus Commission.
A joint media briefing is scheduled to be held on Saturday afternoon. Later in the evening, chief adviser Muhammad Yunus will host an iftar and dinner in honour of the UN secretary general, said Azad Majumder.
The chief adviser鈥檚 press secretary Shafiqul Alam at the press briefing said that Antonio Guterres was expected to visit the Rohingya camps at a time when food assistance for the Rohingyas refugees had significantly decreased.
He expressed hope that the visit would draw global leaders鈥� attention back to the Rohingya crisis, which was increasingly overlooked due to multiple global crises.
Noting the significance of Guterres鈥� first visit since the Rohingya crisis began in August 2017, he said 鈥楾his is an important visit for Bangladesh. The Rohingya issue has somewhat faded from global attention due to other international crises.鈥�
Shafiqul added, 鈥楶rofessor Muhammad Yunus has continuously worked to bring the Rohingya crisis back into focus on the global stage as whenever he meets with world leaders, he focuses the issue,鈥� he said.
Guterres鈥� visit would result in new efforts or messages from the UN to reinvigorate international discussions on the crisis eventually boosting the aid for the refugees, the press secretary hoped.
He further underlined that addressing the Rohingya issue remained a top priority for the interim government, saying that since the beginning of the current administration, Professor Yunus kept it in sharp focus.
He also pointed out that humanitarian aid for the Rohingyas had been dwindling, particularly in terms of nutritional assistance to meet which a substantial $15 million in aid was required every month.聽
The press secretary to the chief adviser said that an international conference on the Rohingya issue was scheduled to be held in September under the auspices of the United Nations, with Bangladesh playing a central role alongside co-sponsors Finland and Malaysia.
When asked about Rohingya repatriation amid Myanmar鈥檚 conflict, where rebel groups currently hold power in Rakhine, Shafiqul said, 鈥楾he government is working through diplomatic channels to ensure their return. Our diplomatic efforts are ongoing.鈥�
The UN has decided to halve its per person monthly allocations for food for Rohingyas in Bangladesh from $12.50 to $6, effective from April 1, which is likely to intensify food crisis in the Rohingya camps.聽
Over 15 per cent of Rohingya children in the Cox鈥檚 Bazar camps are now malnourished鈥攖he highest level recorded since the mass displacement of Rohingya in 2017, according to the UNICEF.
鈥楴ow, the crisis is deepening. In January 2025, cases of severe acute malnutrition rose by 25 per cent compared to the same month last year (from 819 to 1,021 cases). February saw an even sharper increase of 27 per cent (836 to 1,062 cases), marking a dangerous upward trend鈥�, said the UNICEF Bangladesh in a release issued from Dhaka on Tuesday.
The government continues efforts to send back Rohingyas to their homeland Myanmar without any progress, with the number of displaced people sheltered in Bangladesh camps now standing at 1.3 million.
The number of Rohingyas sheltered in Bangladesh camps is increasing with an average new births of 30,000 every year, according to the government data.
Meanwhile, the International Truth and Justice Project and local rights body Maayer Daak in a joint statement issued from Dhaka and Johannesburg said that the UN secretary-general should state publicly that no officer from units in Bangladesh named in a recent UN human rights investigation in connection with systematic rights abuses in the July protests in Bangladesh would be deployed for peacekeeping as he visits Dhaka.