US likely to take few Rohingyas on Thursday: FM

The United States (US) is likely to start taking forcibly displaced Rohingyas from Bangladesh to its territory with a few numbers on Thursday.

"In the first phase, they have listed about 62 Rohingyas ... (and) among them, they are likely to take few Rohingyas on 8 December," Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told media on Tuesday afternoon

He made the comment after his meeting with visiting US Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration Julieta Valls Noyes at Foreign Service Academy here.

"There is nothing to get excited [as US will take few Rohingyas] ... it [the number of Rohingyas] is just a drop in the ocean," Momen said as Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas.

Momen said earlier he urged the US to take at least one lakh Rohingyas as the density of people is much lower in US compared to Bangladesh.

However, the foreign minister said, it's a good move as the US is about to start taking Rohingyas and Washington decided to take some Rohingyas from Bangladesh every year.

The government of Bangladesh wants to see a better life for the Rohingyas, he added.

The US assistant secretary thanked the Bangladesh government for its life-saving support for Rohingya and discussed the safe return, livelihood and third-country resettlement of the displaced Myanmar people.

The US assistant secretary arrived here on Saturday on a five-day official tour of Bangladesh to visit Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar and Bhashanchar.

The assistant secretary is scheduled to leave Bangladesh for Thailand on Wednesday.