‘Over 1 million Rohingya in Bangladesh’
HONG NANLI, 79-year-old Chinese sports photographer COX’S BAZAR: Bangladesh has counted more than a million Rohingya refugees living in camps near the border with Myanmar, higher than previous estimates, the head of its registration project said yesterday as preparations for their return got under way.
The Bangladesh army began biometric registering of the refugees last year after the latest mass influx of Rohingya from Myanmar, where the Muslim minority has faced decades of persecution.
The registration is aimed partly at aiding repatriation of the refugees — a controversial issue as most say they do not want to return.
Bangladesh says it wants to start sending them home next week and has reached an initial agreement with Myanmar to complete it in two years.
“We have registered 1,004,742 Rohingya. They are given biometric registration cards,” said Saidur Rahman, a brigadiergeneral with the Bangladesh army who heads the Rohingya registration project.
Thousands more had yet to be registered, he said.
The figures are higher than those provided by the United Nations, which estimates there are 962,000 Rohingya living in southeast Bangladesh.
That includes the 655,000 UN estimates have entered the country since Aug 25, when the Myanmar military launched a violent crackdown in Rakhine State following attacks by Rohingya militants. AFP