City
Epaper

Bangladesh ready to start Rohingya repatriations

By IANS | Updated: August 20, 2019 04:30 IST

Bangladesh said on Monday it would be ready to start the repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar on 22 August, nearly two years after members of the Muslim minority fled violence in the western state of Rakhine in light of a military crackdown.

Open in App

"Our transit camp, our transpiration arrangement, our security arrangement, everything is nearly complete," Bangladesh's Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, Abul Kalam Azad, told the Efe news.

"Tomorrow the interview process will start, our people are working day in and out and we have deployed enough people. We have also decided the route. Primarily we will use the land route. If everything goes alright the repatriation will start on 22nd August," he said.

Azad added that in the first phase 3,450 members of the ethnic minority who have been verified by Myanmar will be repatriated.

These individuals were some of 22,432 individuals whose names Bangladesh shared with Myanmar for the purpose of assessing their eligibility to return in October last year.

"In support of the government of Bangladesh we have begun information sharing for all refugees across the settlements, and also informing of those refugees who are cleared for return," UNHCR spokesman Joseph Surjamoni Tripura said.

The repatriation move comes a year and a half after a major repatriation attempt floundered when refugees refused to return to the country they had fled amid fears of fresh violence.

The mass exodus began on 25 August 2017, when Myanmar's army launched an offensive in Rakhine state - which borders Bangladesh - with the purported aim of suppressing Rohingya insurgents.

Since the 2017 crackdown, almost a million Rohingya refugees - most of them women and children - languish amid poor sanitary conditions within sprawling refugee camps in the eastern Bangladeshi coastal city of Cox's Bazaar.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute in July denounced Myanmar's "minimal preparation" for the return of Rohingya refugees through an analysis of satellite images of the region.

According to the ASPI, some 320 out of the 392 Rohingya villages that were razed to the ground during the 2017 military operation show no signs of reconstruction.

The UN observers have described the army crackdown as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing" and "possible genocide" and underlined the need for a return process that is safe, dignified and voluntary.

( With inputs from IANS )

Tags: bangladeshmyanmarAbul Kalam AzadEFE
Open in App

Related Stories

Cricket“For Every Action, There Is a Reaction”: Former BCCI Official After Bangladesh Bans IPL Broadcast Amid Mustafizur Rahman Row

International‘I Jumped Into the Pond to Live’: Bangladesh Mob Sets Hindu Businessman on Fire in Fourth Minority Attack in Two Weeks

InternationalKhaleda Zia, Bangladesh's 3-Time Prime Minister, Dies At 80 After Prolonged Illness In Dhaka

OpinionsConspiracy in Bangladesh Against India

InternationalOsman Hadi Funeral Today: Heavy Security in Dhaka as Supporters Gather at Manik Mia Avenue

International Realted Stories

InternationalErth Zayed Philanthropies Board of Trustees reviews 2025 progress, strategic programmes for 2026

InternationalAmnesty calls Pakistan's Afghan deportation plan 'Unlawful'

InternationalBrazilian, Spanish leaders discuss Mercosur-EU deal, Venezuela situation

InternationalExiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi calls for economic workers strike in Iran, says he is "preparing to return"

InternationalBushfire claims one life in Australia's Victoria, state of disaster declared