Bangladesh has requested China to persuade Myanmar to take back all 5,000 Rohingya refugees who are staying on zero point across the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.
Foreign minister Dr Abdul Momen said this while talking to a scrum of reporters at his office after his meeting with Chinese envoy Li Jiming on Thursday.
China has been engaged in facilitating negotiations between Myanmar and Bangladesh to resolve the long-pending Rohingya crisis.
But Mr Momen repented that although China is sincere in its role, the expected result is yet to come along.
He said preparations are underway to start the repatriation but failed to give any specific timeline as to when the first batch of Rohingya will be taken back by Myanmar.
In this connection, the minister mentioned that there are complications over the verification process conducted by Myanmar.
"In most cases, it is found that they've [Myanmar] verified some members of a family but other members of the same family is not verified."
"It made the Rohingya refugees reluctant to go back as nobody wants to go back leaving their family members here," added the minister.
He cited that although a team from Myanmar was scheduled to arrive in Cox's Bazar to meet the Rohingya, the visit did not take place.
"Such meeting is important for confidence-building among the Rohingya members," Mr Momen pointed out.
After assuming power in Myanmar, he said, the military government expressed its willingness to recognise the agreements between the previous Myanmar government and Bangladesh over the repatriation.
"We took it as a positive move. But later, we didn't find any concrete efforts to expedite the repatriation from this government which is very upsetting."
Mr Momen expressed his happiness over China's role in convincing Myanmar to stop firing along Bangladesh border as it caused panic among Bangladeshis living near Myanmar border.
"We requested China to tell Myanmar to take necessary measures to stop firing along Bangladesh-Myanmar border and we're happy that recently the firing incident along the border has stopped."
mirmostafiz@yahoo.com