Teknaf, Bangladesh

A team from Myanmar government, on Thursday (May 25) visited Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh as part of a repatriation scheme that has been mooted. These refugees are stuck in ramshackle camps in southeastern Bangladesh since 2017 when they fled a crackdown by Myanmar military. The crackdown is now in focus of United Nations genocide investigation. A number of previous attempts to repatriate the Rohingya have failed. Now, Bangladesh and Myanmar are looking at returning around 1100 Rohingyas to the violence-hit state of Rakhine in Myanmar in coming weeks. 

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This month, twenty Rohingyas visited two resettlement camps in Rakhine. Myanmar's military junta is planning to resettle the Rohingyas here. The land, according to some experts, has belonged to Rohingya for generations before it was confiscated. 

Watch | Myanmar envoy visits Rohingya camps, paving way for repatriation

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The team of 14 Myanmar officials, all in civilian clothes, arrived by boat in the Bangladeshi border town of Teknaf on Thursday morning, went to the camps and talked to around 200 people.

Not everyone's happy

But Mohammad Selim, one of the Rohingya who met the Myanmar delegation, told AFP by phone that their demands were being ignored.

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"We said that we have to return to our own ancestral house... We told them they should give us citizenship. But they said they will give us NVC (national verification card), which is not citizenship," Selim said.

"They repeatedly said so. There is no way we can trust them."

"We have no permanent representative in this repatriation process," Khin Maung, a prominent Rohingya leader, told AFP before the meeting.

"This repatriation process is just an eyewash. If they didn't ensure our dignity, there is no point returning to IDPs (internally displaced people)," he said.

AFP quoted another Rohingya Muslim individual who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The person said that they did not want to go  back to Myanmar "as non-citizens and stay in IDP camps"

"Our place should be given back to us, our right to live like other ethnic groups should be legally guaranteed. Otherwise, we cannot believe the mass murderers," they said.

Mainul Kabir, head of the Rohingya wing in Bangladesh's foreign ministry, told reporters Thursday that repatriation was "the only way to solve the Rohingya issue".

He said the Myanmar delegation "assured that the confusions that are being created will be resolved gradually".

Human Rights Watch criticised the repatriation plan last week. It said that it posed "grave risks" to the Rohingya.

"Bangladesh is frustrated with its burden as host, but sending refugees back to the control of a ruthless Myanmar junta will just be setting the stage for the next devastating exodus," the group said in a statement.

(With inputs from agencies)

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