Refugee Repatriation: Rohingya team to visit Rakhine tomorrow

A 20-member Rohingya delegation will visit Rakhine tomorrow to see for themselves the facilities arranged by the Myanmar authorities before a planned repatriation of a group of Rohingyas likely by the end of this month.

This is the first time any Rohingya delegation would be visiting Rakhine to assess the situation there as the Rohingyas, since their largest influx in 2017, have not volunteered to return home despite two attempts, arguing that the situation was not conducive and that there was no guarantee of citizenship.

"We have been making such proposals for long as part of confidence-building process. Myanmar has agreed on this this time," a foreign ministry official told The Daily Star yesterday.

"Seeing is believing. If they see, they can be convinced to return to the place from where they were driven away," the official said, adding that the repatriation may start with a group of more than 1,000 Rohingyas.

The delegation will visit a site close to the Bangladesh border, where Myanmar's military regime plans to resettle more than 1,000 Rohingyas under a pilot project.

"We will be shown the camps built by the Myanmar government for the Rohingyas. We will see the facilities there," Badiul, a Rohingya community leader and also a member of the delegation, told AFP yesterday.

The development comes amid a series of events which took place for Rohingya justice and repatriation.

In December last year, the US, which declared Rohingya atrocities as genocide, passed BURMA Act to support Myanmar's civilian forces fighting for restoring democracy since the military takeover of power in 2021.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) set May 24, 2023, as the deadline for the Myanmar junta to file a "Counter-Memorial", an official response to the evidence of genocide against the Rohingya people provided by The Gambia, which filed a lawsuit with the ICJ against Myanmar for Rohingya genocide.

In mid-March this year, a 17-member Myanmar delegation verified the identities of the Rohingyas in Teknaf as, officials said, there were issues regarding the earlier verification process.

Officials concerned said lists of 8.82 lakh Rohingyas were sent to the Myanmar authorities in the past and the identities of around 70,000 of them were verified by the latter. However, some members of same families were left out of the list of verified Rohingyas.

As Bangladesh asked why this happened, the Myanmar authorities said there may have been spelling mistakes in the names or addresses, foreign ministry officials told The Daily Star earlier.

Contacted, North South University Political Science Professor Sk Tawfique M Haque said it is good that Myanmar agreed to arrange a visit for the Rohingyas, but more important for them is to ensure safety, security and citizenship by amending their law.

"I think Myanmar is trying to show the international community that they are sincere about Rohingya repatriation. Also, China wants to show that it is emerging as a global peace negotiator. The Bangladesh government will also gain if it can start repatriation ahead of the next general election," said Tawfique, also the director of South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance at the NSU.

Rohingya repatriation will largely depend on voluntariness of the Rohingyas, and their confidence in security and equal rights as citizens of Myanmar, he said.