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TEKNAF, Bangladesh – The UN Human Rights Officer on Tuesday called on Bangladesh to end imminent plans to return Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, warning of the risk of further serious violations against the Muslim minority.
Bangladeshi authorities have announced that they will begin to return Rohingya refugees, who have fled what the UN has described as "ethnic cleansing," in the predominantly Buddhist country starting on Thursday.
This prospect provoked panic in the camps, pushing some families who were indebted to them. to be among the first to be repatriated to flee, said community leaders.
The UN Human Rights Office reported that it continued to receive reports of continuing violations of Rohingya in Myanmar and asked Dhaka to reconsider his reflections.
"We are witnessing terror and panic among the Rohingya refugees who are in Cox's Bazar." An imminent risk of being sent back to Myanmar against their will, "said Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement
"Forcibly evicting or returning refugees and asylum-seekers to their country of origin would be a flagrant violation of the fundamental right principle non-refoulement, which prohibits repatriation in case of threats of persecution or serious risks to life, physical integrity or freedom of persons. "
More than 720,000 Rohingya Muslims fled from Rakhine State, in western Myanmar, as a result of the military crackdown of August last year, bringing with them stories of murder, rape and torture
They have joined some 300,000 Rohingyas who have been living in squalid camps in southeastern Bangladesh for years
Some 2,260 Rohingya Muslims had to leave the post Bangladesh border in the district of Cox & # 39; s Bazar, in the south-east of the country, as part of the first repatriations made on Thursday under the voluntary program.
– Said Delwar Hossain, director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh: Refugees would be repatriated in groups of 150 each day during the initial phase
"Both parties agreed to begin repatriation on 15 November", he said Tuesday before the rights of the man he United Nations does not publish his statement.
Confusion and fear
The leaders of the refugee community said that many Rohingyas on the returnee list were terrified and hiding.
"They were intimidated and fled to other camps," Nur Islam said. Jamtoli refugee camp.
An AFP correspondent was able to talk to three families who had announced their departure this week.
"As the day approaches, our tension rises," Mohammad Khaleque said. He stated that he and his family fled their encampment to take refuge in another makeshift colony, the Rohingya, at Cox 's Bazaar, in order to avoid being forcibly repatriated.
"We do not want to go back this way," he said. The UN pointed out that many of the families allegedly presumed to return were headed by women or children and that some refugees threatened to commit suicide when forced to return home.
About 400 Rakhine Hindus, who also fled the violence alongside the Rohingya, said they were ready to return if the pbadage was safe
"We prepared our bags. Security was sufficient, "said 60-year-old Jyotsna Bala Paul.
" Rather dying "
The United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, which this week, the Bangladeshi government sent a list whether the refugees wanted to return voluntarily to Myanmar, said the date of November 15 was an "ambitious plan."
"This is the case of the governments of Bangladesh and Bangladesh. Myanmar. Even if we still think that the conditions are not favorable to the return of the refugees to Myanmar, "told AFP spokesman Chris Melzer on Monday.
The Refugee Commissioner of Bangladesh , Mohammad Abul Kalam, said the country was ready to repatriate the refugees
An AFP team visited the two centers, one apparently completed and the construction of the second completed at "over 80 %, according to builders
A Bangladeshi official on condition of anonymity, admitted that Rohingya refugees were not "mentally ready" to return.
"They often tell us that They would rather die here, in the camps [Bangladeshi] rather than go back to live in pain.
Bachelet emphasized that "the human rights violations against the Rohingya in Myanmar are the worst atrocities, including crimes against humanity and possibly even genocide".
"The fact that the Rohingya refugees are returning to Myanmar with almost total lack of responsibility, or even continuing violations, actually means putting them back into the cycle of human rights violations that this community has been going through ever since. decades. "
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