It was alleged that this was hampering humanitarian aid for Rohingya refugees by Malaysian relief workers.
The foreign ministry’s office said the Bangladesh authorities had set some procedures to streamline involvement of all foreign NGOs there in view of the large numbers wanting to enter the country.
“Wisma Putra is working closely with the Bangladesh high commission here. The Bangladesh government is also looking at ways to better coordinate our assistance,” Wisma Putra told FMT in a reply.
According to a source involved in humanitarian efforts, the government was denying entry to aid workers.
“All Malaysians are being denied visas on arrival in Bangladesh, including (volunteer group) IM4U, despite Prime Minister Najib Razak’s intervention.
“So, the humanitarian missions with their cargo and funds are all stuck and unable to enter,” he said.
Earlier this month, Najib had reportedly said that Malaysia would deploy aid to Bangladesh to help Rohingya escaping from the conflict zone in Myanmar’s Rakhine province which borders Bangladesh.
Najib said the defence ministry would send an integrated humanitarian mission to help the refugees seeking shelter in Chittagong, Bangladesh.
The United Nations (UN) has estimated that more than half of the 370,000 Rohingya Muslims who made it to Bangladesh since Aug 25, were minors.
Figures released recently by Unicef indicate that of this number, more than 1,100 fleeing children had arrived alone in Bangladesh since Aug 25.
The UN children’s agency warned that the children, some of whom had gunshot wounds, were at risk of sexual abuse, human trafficking and psychological trauma.
Many had seen their family members killed in massacres across Rakhine where the army and mobs had been accused of crimes described by UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein as “ethnic cleansing”.