Pakistan and Saudi Arabia discuss Rohingya issue
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan and Saudi Arabia will soon discuss the legal status of the 250,000 Rohingya Muslims living in the kingdom.
According to reports, these Myanmar-born Muslims had entered Saudi Arabia on Pakistani passports that have since expired.
Turkish Anadolu news agency quoted Qadir Yar Tiwana, a spokesman for Pakistan’s Interior Ministry, as saying that the two sides will discuss renewing their passports.
He said a joint committee has been formed to look into the matter.
“No final decision has so far been taken, however, it’s likely to be resolved soon,” he said.
An unnamed official at the Pakistani Embassy in Riyadh told the news agency that the Rohingya came to Saudi Arabia in the 1960s.
He said there was agreement that Riyadh would eventually grant them citizenship.
The Pakistani government had stopped renewing their passports since 2012.
The official said many Rohingya are married to Saudi women.
Under Saudi laws, their children cannot apply for Saudi citizenship.
These children, who have neither Pakistani nor Saudi passports, are effectively stateless citizens.
The Rohingya began traveling to Saudi Arabia through the southern port city of Karachi in the 1960s using Pakistani passports,
According to Noor Hussain Arakani, a leader of the Rohingya community, his in-laws and a brother also live in Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan’s port city of Karachi is home to more than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims, the highest number after Myanmar and Bangladesh.
They began pouring into the region in the early 1940s – before the creation of Pakistan.
The first exodus took place in 1942 after the first army operation in Rakhine State, which killed over 100,000 Rohingya Muslims.
Most Rohingya refugees reached Pakistan between 1960 and 1980 after a long and arduous journey through Bangladesh to India and then to Pakistan.
Since then, there has been no mass migration as India has closed its borders with Bangladesh.
Former Pakistani President Ayub Khan, who ruled the country from 1958 to 1969, allocated land to the Rohingya refugees in 1962.
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