Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday renewed her call to the international community, including Japan, to persuade Myanmar to take back their Rohingya nationals from Bangladesh.

"The Rohingyas must return and for this, the global community will have to persuade Myanmar to take them back from Bangladesh," she made the call when Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono paid a courtesy call on her at the

Gono Bhaban in the afternoon.

Earlier in the day, Taro arrived in Dhaka on a brief visit to further promote the Bangladesh-Japan comprehensive partnership and discuss other issues of mutual interests, including Rohingya crisis.

After the meeting, PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters.

A huge number of Rohingyas has fled to Bangladesh since August last year and they have outnumbered the

locals in Cox's Bazar, causing various problems, the premier said.

She said locals of Cox's Bazar were suffering a lot as their arable land was occupied by the Rohingyas. "So, we are also helping the local people."

Referring to the signing of a deal with Myanmar on the Rohingya repatriation, Hasina said though Naypyitaw agreed to take back the Rohingyas, they did not take any action in this regard yet. "We're continuing discussion with Myanmar for the Rohingya repatriation."

The PM said the international organisations' staffers and volunteers working in Cox's Bazar for mitigating the sufferings of the Rohingyas could also help them in Myanmar after their repatriation.

The Japanese foreign minister told Hasina that he had talks with Myanmar President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi on the Rohingya issue during his recent tour to Myanmar.

He said the Myanmar leaders informed him that they had inked an MoU on the Rohingya repatriation. "I've asked them to speed up the activities for constructing houses and schools so that Rohingyas can live in Rakhine State in a better condition on their return from Bangladesh."

Taro added that he also asked the Myanmar authorities to send their teams to Bangladesh to visit the refugee camps, talk to Bangladesh authorities and take back the Rohingyas.