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COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh – About 1,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees demonstrated on Thursday in a camp in Bangladesh against plans to repatriate them to Myanmar, where hundreds of thousands of people had fled army-driven violence last year.
In Unchiprang camp, one of the largest refugee camps near the town of Cox's Bazar, a Bangladeshi refugee official implored the Rohingyas to return home with a loudspeaker.
"We have everything organized for you, we have six buses here, we have trucks, we have food. We want to give you everything. If you agree to leave, we will take you to the border, to the transit camp, "he said.
"We will not go!" Chanted hundreds of voices, including children.
The Bangladeshi authorities have announced that the repatriation of more than 700,000 Rohingyas would begin on Thursday if people were ready to go, despite calls from UN representatives and human rights organizations. man not to delay. But it is not clear if there are volunteers.
Refugee Commissioner Abul Kalam has refused to say what the Bangladesh authorities would do if the refugees refused to leave, but according to an agreement with Bangladesh by the United Kingdom with Bangladesh and Myanmar, the Rohingya can not to be forced to return home.
"If they agree, we will take them to the transit camp and give them food for three days before handing them over to the Myanmar authorities," he said.
The huge exodus of Rohingya began last August after Myanmar's security forces launched a brutal crackdown following attacks by a group of insurgents on guard posts. The scale, organization and ferocity of the operation have led to accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide by the international community, including the United Nations.
Most of Myanmar's predominantly Buddhist inhabitants do not accept the fact that Rohingya Muslims belong to an indigenous ethnic group, they regard them as "Bengalis" who have entered Bangladesh illegally, even though generations of Rohingya have lived in the country. Myanmar. Almost all have been denied citizenship since 1982, as well as access to education and hospitals.
Despite Myanmar's assurances, human rights activists said on Thursday that conditions were not yet in place to allow the return of Rohingya refugees.
"Nothing in the words or actions of the Myanmar government suggests that the Rohingyas will be safe when they return," Human Rights Watch Refugee Rights Director Bill Frelick said in a statement.
The group said 150 people from 30 families were taken to a transit camp for their return, but the families had not been taken to the transit camp yet.
The Bangladeshi authorities have reported working with the US Refugee Protection Agency to establish lists of people willing to return to Myanmar.
In the Jamtoli refugee camp, Setara, 25, said she and her two children aged 4 and 7 were on a repatriation list, but her parents were not . She added that she had never asked to return to Myanmar and that she had sent her children to a school run by relief workers on Thursday morning, as usual.
"They killed my husband. now I live here with my parents, "said Setara, who gave only one name. "I do not want to go back."
She added that other refugees whose names figured on the Bangladesh government's repatriation list had fled to other camps, hoping to disappear among the crowded streets of Bangladesh. refugees, aid workers and Bangladeshi soldiers.
Repatriation negotiations have been going on for months, but plans in January to begin sending refugees to Rakhine state in Myanmar were canceled on the grounds that aid workers and Rohingya feared their return with violence.
Foreign leaders, including US Vice President Mike Pence, criticized Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi this week on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit -Est (Singapore) for its management of the Rohingya crisis.
But on Thursday, Pence said US officials were "encouraged to hear that" the repatriation process would begin.
In addition to those who arrived in Bangladesh last year, an estimated 200,000 Rohingyas fled Myanmar in previous waves of violence and persecution.
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Annabelle Liang, Associate Editor at Press, Singapore, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.
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