Bangladesh: Rohingya refugees unwilling to settle in Myanmar camps

Despite initiatives to promote their voluntary repatriation, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have insisted that they would not return to Myanmar to “be confined in camps” after making their first return visit.

In the Bangladeshi border district of Cox’s Bazar, nearly a million Muslims from the Rohingya ethnic group reside in filthy camps.

The majority of them have been there ever since they fled a military-led crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in 2017 and haven’t been home till now, despite Bangladeshi officials have visited Myanmar on many occasions in an effort to bring the refugees home.

On Friday, twenty Rohingya Muslim refugees and seven representatives from Bangladesh visited Maungdaw Township and adjacent villages in Rakhine State to observe the relocation plans.

The Rohingya have expressed doubt about the preparations for repatriation and stated that they will only return permanently to Myanmar if their security is ensured and they are given citizenship.

“We don’t want to be confined in camps. We want to get back our land and we will build our own houses there,” Oli Hossain, who was among the refugees who visited Rakhine State, told Reuters by phone.

“We’ll only return with citizenship and all our rights,” said the 36-year-old Hossain, father of six children.

Myanmar is offering Rohingya national verification cards (NVC), which Rohingya refugees regard as inadequate.

“Myanmar is our birthplace and we are citizens of Myanmar and will only go back with citizenship,” said refugee Abu Sufian, 35, father of three children.

“We’ll never accept NVC. This will effectively identify Rohingya as foreigners,” he told Reuters. The authorities had “even changed the name of my village in Rakhine,” he added.

Repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar is the only solution to the problem, Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, the commissioner for refugee relief and repatriation in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh, told the media.

“We want nothing but a safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable repatriation,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Cox’s Baz refugee relief and repatriation commissioner for Bangladesh, Mohammed Mizanur RahmanHe added that a Myanmar delegation would visit Bangladesh in a week as a follow-up to help the Rohingya gain confidence.

The Rohingya have been treated as foreign invaders in Myanmar for years, denied citizenship, and subjected to abuse. Up until lately, the military there had shown little interest in accepting any of them back.

However, a delegation from Myanmar visited the camps in March to confirm the identities of a small number of returnees for a test project.

An official from Bangladesh stated that although there was no defined deadline, the endeavour will involve roughly 1,100 people. Beginning repatriation efforts in 2018 and 2019 were unsuccessful since the refugees refused to return out of fear of violence.

Every refugee has “an inalienable right” to return to their place of origin, according to the UNHCR, but such returns must also be voluntary.

“UNHCR maintains that dialogue with the Rohingya refugees is a must to make an informed decision,” the agency said in a statement.

“Visits are an important part of voluntary refugee returns, providing a chance for people to observe conditions in their home country first-hand ahead of return and contributing to the making of an informed decision on return,” it said further.

(With agency inputs)

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