Bangladesh says start of Rohingya return to Myanmar delayed

Tuesday, 23 January 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

PALONGKHALI, Bangladesh (Reuters): Bangladesh has delayed the repatriation of Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar, set to start on Tuesday, because the process of compiling and verifying the list of people to be sent back is incomplete, a senior Bangladesh official said.

The decision comes as tensions have risen in camps holding hundreds of thousands of refugees, some of whom are opposing their transfer back to Myanmar because of lack of security guarantees.

Myanmar agreed earlier this month to receive the Rohingya refugees at two reception centres and a temporary camp near its border with Bangladesh over a two-year period starting Tuesday. The authorities have said repatriations would be voluntary.

But Abul Kalam, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and rehabilitation commissioner, said on Monday the return would have to be delayed. He did not immediately give a new date for the repatriations to begin.

“There are many things remaining,” he told Reuters by phone. “The list of people to be sent back is yet to be prepared, their verification and setting up of transit camps is remaining.”

More than 655,500 Muslim Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after a crackdown by the Myanmar military in the northern part of Rakhine state in response to militant attacks on security forces on Aug. 25. The United Nations described the military operation as ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, which Myanmar denies.

Myanmar said it was ready to take back the returning Rohingya.

“We are ready to accept them once they come back. On our part, the preparation is ready,” Ko Ko Naing, director general of Myanmar’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, told Reuters by phone.

He declined to comment on whether Bangladesh had informed Myanmar about the delay.