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A high-level delegation from Myanmar is in the district of Cox & Bazar, in southern Bangladesh, to conduct repatriation discussions with Rohingya refugees.
The purpose of Saturday's visit was "talk with the Rohingya refugees in order to convince them to return to their original country ", said Mr. Delwar Hossain, Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh.
The 15-member delegation of Nay Pyi Taw, led by the Permanent Secretary of Myanmar, Foreign MinistryMyint Thu held a four-hour meeting with community leaders, including women, from the refugee community.
More than 700,000 Rohingyas were forced to flee northern Rakhine, in western Myanmar, following a brutal military crackdown in 2017. The United Nations has declared that the offensive included mbad killings and mbad rapes carried out with "genocidal intent".
They took refuge in three dozen camps located in the Cox & # 39; s bazaar in Bangladesh, increasing the number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to more than 1.2 million. Many still fear for their safety as they return to Myanmar, where the Muslim minority faces decades of repression.
On Saturday, hundreds of Rohingya gathered at the center of the Myanmar delegation, where they were meeting, but were dispersed by Bangladeshi police.
"We came here to meet Myanmar delegates to get answers to our questions, but we were not allowed to meet them," Al Safari Alam, a Rohingya refugee, told Al Jazeera.
Tanvir Chowdhury, of the Al Jazeera group, said the Rohingyas had several basic demands even before considering returning to Myanmar.
"You have to be recognized as a member of the Rohingya ethnic group, get citizenship and have a guarantee of security from the international community," he said. "What the Myanmar delegates are going to achieve remains to be seen, but rights groups and others know that the environment does not allow them to come back yet."
Khaled Hossain, another Rohingya refugee, told Al Jazeera: "If they recognize us as Rohingya and give us citizenship cards, we will return in a second."
Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a repatriation agreement in November 2017, but so far virtually no Rohingya has volunteered to return. Bangladesh said it would not force any Rohingya to leave.
Last November, the repatriation process was unsuccessful, as none of the Rohingyas agreed to return to Myanmar. This visit followed the visit of a Myanmar delegation to the camps last October.
Addressing reporters in Dhaka on Wednesday, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abdel Momen said he hoped "repatriation will begin in September".
Myanmar has faced international pressure to allow the Rohingya to return to Rakhine and grant them citizenship. The UN is complaining of the slow progress being made in resolving the refugee crisis.
In addition, an Australian-based think-tank said Wednesday that Myanmar had made "minimal preparations" for the return of Rohingya refugees with dignity and safety.
While authorities have promised to resettle refugees, badysis of satellite images has revealed "no signs of reconstruction" in the overwhelming majority of their former colonies, while in some areas, The destruction of residential buildings has continued, announced a report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute released late Tuesday.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
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