The Hon. Mujibur Rahman
Hon. Mujibur Rahman urged the Government not to deport Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, citing military rule and human rights concerns there. He argued that Sri Lanka should handle the matter humanely, recalling Sri Lankans’ own history of seeking asylum during past conflicts. He proposed allowing the refugees to remain temporarily in Sri Lanka with UNHCR facilitation until third-country resettlement is arranged.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Thank you for the time, Hon. Presiding Member. This Motion arose because returning Rohingya refugees to Myanmar is not appropriate. Even Government-side speakers now seem to accept a changed stance. If so, there is no issue.
¶ 02 We urge the Government to view this humanely. The world knows Myanmar’s situation—military rule and grave human rights concerns. Sri Lanka has experience: in 1988–1989 and during the northern-eastern war, many Sri Lankans sought asylum in Europe. Even leaders of today’s ruling party once fled and received political protection abroad. We know how sensitive and personal these matters are.
¶ 03 Given our current economic situation, no one is eager to settle here; they seek to move on. UNHCR is now involved. Until third-country resettlement is arranged, do not deport them; allow them to remain temporarily in Sri Lanka with UNHCR facilitation. I conclude.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Thursday, 23 January 2025 ·No. 1738314169039521 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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/lk/speeches/10618
Cite as: The Hon. Mujibur Rahman. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 23 January 2025. No. 1738314169039521. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/10618