Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus held meetings on
Thursday with the chiefs of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees
(UNHCR) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) at a hotel in New York,
USA.
High
Commissioner of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi discussed the
Rohingya crisis with the Chief Adviser.
Grandi called for a new approach to the crisis saying that the international
communities should do more to end the miseries of more than one million Rohingyas in
the camps in Bangladesh.
He
said the assumption of Prof Yunus as the new leader of Bangladesh has increased
global interest in the Rohingya crisis. He expressed the hope there will be
more funding for the Rohingya humanitarian responses.
“The
700 million dollars from the World Bank is a good starting point," he
said, adding the UN stands ready to support more for the education of the
Rohingya children.
Prof
Yunus stressed finding a quick solution to the crisis and doing more for the
future of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya children growing up in the refugee
camps in Bangladesh.
"We have to resolve this before it is too late. We have to find a
solution," he said.
ILO Director General Gilbert Houngbo also called on the Chief Adviser at a
hotel later on Thursday.
Houngbo
offered the UN labour agency's support to the Interim Government's move to
implement ILO conventions in Bangladesh. “We are at your disposal," he
said, adding the ILO would respond to his call "if and when" he
needed it.
The
Chief Adviser said labour reforms are a top priority of his government, as it
sees the issue as a key to turning Bangladesh into a world class manufacturing
hub.
“We
are very serious about this," Prof Yunus said, adding that addressing
labour issues would draw more foreign direct investment in Bangladesh