Staff Correspondent

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