Rohingya issue: Bangladesh backs India's stand, says foreign minister Shahidul Haque

Bangladesh foreign secretary Shahidul Haque said today Dhaka has backed India's stand on the Rohingya issue

"I think the way India is currently approaching on the Rohingya issue, we are extremely happy," Bangladesh foreign secretary Shahidul Haque said.

Haque, who arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday, has met Indian officials to deal with the Rohingya crisis, with which Dhaka is grappling because of the arrival of refugees.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had earlier described the Rohingyas as "illegal immigrants" and not refugees who had applied for asylum in India.

The home minister had also said that India would not violate any international law by deporting Rohingyas, as it was not a signatory to the UN Refugees Convention 1951.

Addressing a seminar organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Singh asked why some people were objecting to the deportation of Rohingyas when Myanmar was ready to accept them.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj is expected to visit Dhaka for a joint consultative commission meeting.

Swaraj had earlier expressed India`s full support to Bangladesh`s stance over the Rohingya issue as international concern grows over the fate of the refugees.