20-member team along with Bangladeshi officials to visit Rakhine State to pave way for repatriation before monsoon season, say officials
SM Najmus Sakib and Md Kamruzzaman |
04.05.2023
Dhaka
DHAKA, Bangladesh
A 20-member Rohingya team is set to visit Myanmar this week to assess the condition in the Rakhine State of Myanmar for possible repatriation before this monsoon, according to Bangladeshi officials.
Sources in the Foreign Ministry told Anadolu: “The visit is aimed at building confidence among the refugees for a safe, voluntary, and dignified repatriation.”
The Foreign Ministry officials in the field working on refugee management will also accompany the team.
Speaking to Anadolu, Bangladesh's Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammed Mizanur Rahman said it is a positive development to start a peaceful and dignified repatriation of the forcibly displaced citizens of Myanmar.
“I am hopeful that after a long gap, a significant sign of Rohingya repatriation has been visible,” Rahman said.
He, however, added that it will depend on how the Myanmar authorities receive their citizens.
The ministry officials hoped the repatriation would start before this monsoon.
The monsoon season normally lasts from June through October.
This is the first Rohingya refugees' official visit after their exodus in August 2017. The team is expected to visit Myanmar on May 5 following a rare visit of Myanmar junta officials to the refugee camps on the southeast coast of Bangladesh in March this year.
More than 1.2 million Rohingya Muslims forcibly displaced from Myanmar live in 33 congested refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, with another 30,000 relocated to Bhasan Char, an island in the Bay of Bengal. Most of the refugees fled a brutal military crackdown in Rakhine, a state on the western coast of Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Chinese mediation
Earlier on Tuesday, Chinese Ambassador to Dhaka Yao Wen went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a meeting with acting Foreign Secretary Md. Khurshed Alam in Dhaka.
“Efforts are underway to start the repatriation of Rohingya this month with the mediation of China before the start of monsoon season. And, Bangladesh, China, and Myanmar are working to make the repatriation successful,” according to the sources.
Bangladesh earlier made the proposal to send the Rohingya living in the Bangladeshi refugee camps to visit Rakhine state in advance to monitor the situation. After waiting for so many years, Myanmar has agreed to allow Rohingya to visit Myanmar.
In the first phase, over 1,100 pre-screened Rohingya are supposed to go under this arrangement if it is successful. Many such initiatives failed earlier due to non-cooperation from the Myanmar side.
On March 15, a 22-member high-level delegation from Myanmar came to Bangladesh and held meetings with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh’s camps under Chinese mediation for a week to verify a list of 429 Rohingya Muslims prepared by Bangladesh for repatriation.
Dhaka
DHAKA, Bangladesh
A 20-member Rohingya team is set to visit Myanmar this week to assess the condition in the Rakhine State of Myanmar for possible repatriation before this monsoon, according to Bangladeshi officials.
Sources in the Foreign Ministry told Anadolu: “The visit is aimed at building confidence among the refugees for a safe, voluntary, and dignified repatriation.”
The Foreign Ministry officials in the field working on refugee management will also accompany the team.
Speaking to Anadolu, Bangladesh's Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammed Mizanur Rahman said it is a positive development to start a peaceful and dignified repatriation of the forcibly displaced citizens of Myanmar.
“I am hopeful that after a long gap, a significant sign of Rohingya repatriation has been visible,” Rahman said.
He, however, added that it will depend on how the Myanmar authorities receive their citizens.
The ministry officials hoped the repatriation would start before this monsoon.
The monsoon season normally lasts from June through October.
This is the first Rohingya refugees' official visit after their exodus in August 2017. The team is expected to visit Myanmar on May 5 following a rare visit of Myanmar junta officials to the refugee camps on the southeast coast of Bangladesh in March this year.
More than 1.2 million Rohingya Muslims forcibly displaced from Myanmar live in 33 congested refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, with another 30,000 relocated to Bhasan Char, an island in the Bay of Bengal. Most of the refugees fled a brutal military crackdown in Rakhine, a state on the western coast of Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Chinese mediation
Earlier on Tuesday, Chinese Ambassador to Dhaka Yao Wen went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a meeting with acting Foreign Secretary Md. Khurshed Alam in Dhaka.
“Efforts are underway to start the repatriation of Rohingya this month with the mediation of China before the start of monsoon season. And, Bangladesh, China, and Myanmar are working to make the repatriation successful,” according to the sources.
Bangladesh earlier made the proposal to send the Rohingya living in the Bangladeshi refugee camps to visit Rakhine state in advance to monitor the situation. After waiting for so many years, Myanmar has agreed to allow Rohingya to visit Myanmar.
In the first phase, over 1,100 pre-screened Rohingya are supposed to go under this arrangement if it is successful. Many such initiatives failed earlier due to non-cooperation from the Myanmar side.
On March 15, a 22-member high-level delegation from Myanmar came to Bangladesh and held meetings with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh’s camps under Chinese mediation for a week to verify a list of 429 Rohingya Muslims prepared by Bangladesh for repatriation.
Rohingya delegates to visit Myanmar for repatriation plan
Online News Editor
Online News Editor
May 3, 2023
Dhaka, May 3 (EFE).- A 20-member Rohingya delegation is scheduled to visit Myanmar later this week to check the conditions in Rakhine State ahead of a start of repatriation to the country, the Bangladesh authorities confirmed Wednesday.
The delegation representing Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, who fled Myanmar following persecution by the security forces, is expected to visit the strife-torn country on Friday.
“This will be a one-day visit. Some Bangladesh officials will also accompany the Rohingya delegates,” Mizanur Rahman, the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner of Bangladesh, told EFE.
This will be the first visit of a Rohingya team to Myanmar since around 774,000 Rohingyas arrived in Bangladesh following a military crackdown in 2017, which the United Nations classified as an example of ethnic cleansing and possible genocide.
Previously, Bangladesh twice attempted to repatriate members of the community to Myanmar, however, the process was a failure as the Rohingyas refused to return without recognition as citizens and guarantees of security.
A delegation from Myanmar visited Bangladesh in March to restart the long-stalled repatriation process.
Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner, Rahman, said that Myanmar had verified a total of 1,176 Rohingyas to start the repartition under a pilot programme, but no date had been fixed for it.
“It will depend on the result of visits like this when the repatriation can be started,” he said.
Dhaka has in the past claimed to have collected the biometric data of around 830,000 Rohingyas, and submitted it to the authorities in Myanmar for verification.
However, only 58,000 of them have been verified.
In March, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement it was aware of the visit of a Myanmar team to Bangladesh for a bilateral pilot project on possible returns but was not involved in it.
“UNHCR’s position on returns of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar remains unchanged,” the statement said.
“Conditions in Myanmar’s Rakhine State are currently not conducive to the sustainable return of Rohingya refugees,” it had underlined.
In March, the New York-based nonprofit Human Rights Watch urged Bangladesh to suspend plans to send Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, saying it would put their lives and liberty at grave risk.
The statement came a week after a Myanmar delegation concluded its visit to Bangladesh after interviewing some 480 Rohingyas in refugee camps for possible repatriation.
Quoting Rohingyas, HRW said the refugees were “lied to, deceived, or otherwise coerced by Bangladesh administrators” into a meeting with the delegation of Myanmar junta officials as part of a “pilot repatriation” effort.
Dhaka, May 3 (EFE).- A 20-member Rohingya delegation is scheduled to visit Myanmar later this week to check the conditions in Rakhine State ahead of a start of repatriation to the country, the Bangladesh authorities confirmed Wednesday.
The delegation representing Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, who fled Myanmar following persecution by the security forces, is expected to visit the strife-torn country on Friday.
“This will be a one-day visit. Some Bangladesh officials will also accompany the Rohingya delegates,” Mizanur Rahman, the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner of Bangladesh, told EFE.
This will be the first visit of a Rohingya team to Myanmar since around 774,000 Rohingyas arrived in Bangladesh following a military crackdown in 2017, which the United Nations classified as an example of ethnic cleansing and possible genocide.
Previously, Bangladesh twice attempted to repatriate members of the community to Myanmar, however, the process was a failure as the Rohingyas refused to return without recognition as citizens and guarantees of security.
A delegation from Myanmar visited Bangladesh in March to restart the long-stalled repatriation process.
Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner, Rahman, said that Myanmar had verified a total of 1,176 Rohingyas to start the repartition under a pilot programme, but no date had been fixed for it.
“It will depend on the result of visits like this when the repatriation can be started,” he said.
Dhaka has in the past claimed to have collected the biometric data of around 830,000 Rohingyas, and submitted it to the authorities in Myanmar for verification.
However, only 58,000 of them have been verified.
In March, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement it was aware of the visit of a Myanmar team to Bangladesh for a bilateral pilot project on possible returns but was not involved in it.
“UNHCR’s position on returns of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar remains unchanged,” the statement said.
“Conditions in Myanmar’s Rakhine State are currently not conducive to the sustainable return of Rohingya refugees,” it had underlined.
In March, the New York-based nonprofit Human Rights Watch urged Bangladesh to suspend plans to send Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, saying it would put their lives and liberty at grave risk.
The statement came a week after a Myanmar delegation concluded its visit to Bangladesh after interviewing some 480 Rohingyas in refugee camps for possible repatriation.
Quoting Rohingyas, HRW said the refugees were “lied to, deceived, or otherwise coerced by Bangladesh administrators” into a meeting with the delegation of Myanmar junta officials as part of a “pilot repatriation” effort.
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