A Myanmar delegation arrived in Bangladesh on Tuesday to meet Rohingya refugees as part of a long-stalled repatriation project now backed by China, authorities said.
Burma’s representatives arrived in Teknaf, a river port in Bangladesh just across the shared border, to meet Rohingya and their families.
“They will talk to the Rohingya today about repatriation and verifying their identities,” Shamsud Douza, Bangladesh’s deputy commissioner for refugees, told AFP.
“Delegates will leave for Burma today but will return tomorrow,” Mr Douza added.
According to Bangladeshi authorities, Myanmar plans to bring back around 3,000 refugees by December under a pilot repatriation project negotiated at a tripartite meeting between the two countries and China in April.
“They (the Burmese) are ready to welcome them. But the Rohingya are not ready to leave. That is the challenge,” a Bangladeshi government official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Leaders of the Rohingya community have long said they would only return to Burma if the country granted them citizenship and allowed them to settle on their land.
“We are interested in returning to our country if Burma returns us to our place of origin, restores our dignity and fully fulfills our rights,” Khin Maung, a prominent Rohingya leader, told AFP. “But when we are not granted our rights, questions arise.”
Bangladesh is home to around a million members of this stateless Muslim minority, around 750,000 of whom fled Burma in 2017 to escape heavy repression by the Burmese army, making them the subject of an “acts of genocide” investigation at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). ) is ).
The fate of the Rohingya is more uncertain than ever with no repatriation agreement in place, the situation in refugee camps anarchic and international humanitarian aid declining.
This desperate situation has forced thousands of Rohingya to undertake dangerous sea journeys to Southeast Asian countries to leave the camps.
Despite their centuries-old roots in Burma, the Rohingya there are widely viewed as invaders from Bangladesh. They have been stateless since Myanmar stopped recognizing their citizenship in 2015.
A repatriation plan agreed in 2017 has failed to make significant progress as the Rohingya demand guarantees of safety and rights. The Covid pandemic and the military coup in Burma in 2021 then put any progress on hold.
Bangladesh has repeatedly said any repatriation is voluntary, but several affected Rohingya told AFP they had been threatened to force them to take part.