Some Rohingya refugees returned voluntarily, Myanmar says

Nearly 700,000 Muslims fled Myanmar after a violent army crackdown began last August

Myanmar says dozens of Rohingya Muslims who fled to neighbouring Bangladesh have returned voluntarily and will be sent to a transit centre pending resettlement.

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya fled mainly Buddhist Myanmar after a violent army crackdown began last August in the western state of Rakhine, a process that the US and UN have described as ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar has said it is ready to take them back and has traded accusations with Bangladesh over who is responsible for the delay in implementing a repatriation deal. The long-persecuted stateless minority have been reluctant to return without guarantees of basic rights and protections, including the right to return to their old villages rather than to transit camps.

A total of 58 Rohingya have crossed back into Myanmar after they could “no longer find it tenable” to live in Bangladeshi refugee camps, according to a statement published in state media yesterday from the office of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

They were detained for failing to follow proper repatriation procedures until the decision to “pardon” them to resettle in Myanmar, the statement said, adding they would be “temporarily” housed in a transit camp.

The returnees entered Myanmar in different stages over the last four months, said Suu Kyi spokesman Zaw Htay.

Myanmar did not give any information on the group’s members and Bangladeshi authorities said they were unaware of any details.

“We haven’t heard of any such incidents of refugees returning to Rakhine through their own volition or under their own arrangement from the camps,” Bangladesh refugee commissioner Mohammad Abul Kalam told AFP.