Bangladesh delays Rohingya repatriation
PALONGKHALI: Bangladesh has delayed the repatriation of Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar, set to start today, because the process of compiling and verifying the list of people to be sent back is incomplete, a senior Bangladesh official says.
The decision comes as tensions have risen in camps holding hundreds of thousands of refugees, some of whom are opposing their transfer back to Myanmar because of the lack of security guarantees.
Myanmar agreed earlier this month to receive the Rohingya refugees at two reception centres and a temporary camp near its border with Bangladesh over a two-year period starting today. The authorities have said repatriations would be voluntary.
But Abul Kalam, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and rehabilitation commissioner, said yesterday the return would have to be delayed. He did not immediately give a new date for the repatriations to begin.
“There are many things remaining,” he said via phone. “The list of people to be sent back is yet to be prepared, while their verification and setting up of transit camps remain.”
More than 655,500 Muslim Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after a crackdown by the Myanmar military in the northern part of Rakhine State, in response to militant attacks on security forces on Aug 25. Myanmar said it was ready to take back the returning Rohingya.
“We are ready to accept them once they return. On our part, the preparation is ready,” Ko Ko Naing, director-general of Myanmar’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, said via phone.
At the Palongkhali refugee camp, near the Naf river that marks the border between the two countries, a group of Rohingya leaders gathered early yesterday morning with a loudspeaker and a banner listing a set of demands for their return to Myanmar. These include security guarantees, the granting of citizenship and the group’s recognition in Myanmar’s list of ethnic minorities. The Rohingya are also asking that homes, mosques and schools that were razed down or damaged in the military operation be rebuilt.