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Bangladesh 's plan to start repatriating Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar on Thursday was dropped as officials could not find anyone wishing to return to the country accused of hunting hundreds of thousands of people during the war. an ethnic cleansing campaign. .
The refugees "are unwilling to return now," Refugee Commissioner Abul Kalam told the Associated Press. He added that officials "can not force them to go" but will continue to try to "motivate them to make it happen".
Some people on the government 's repatriation list disappeared into sprawling refugee camps to avoid being sent home, while others joined a major protest against the project.
Since August 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Bangladesh from Rakhine State (western Myanmar) to flee the killings and destruction of their villages by military and Buddhist militias who have sentenced Myanmar to great lengths. ladder.
The United Nations, whose human rights officials urged Bangladesh to end the repatriation process, while officials of its refugee agencies helped to facilitate it, welcomed the development of Thursday.
Firas Al-Khateeb, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees at Cox's Bazar, said it was unclear when the process could resume. "We want their repatriation, but it must be voluntary, safe and smooth," he said.
Bangladesh officials refused to say whether another repatriation attempt would be made on Friday.
Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali told reporters in Dhaka Thursday that "forced repatriation is not an issue. We gave them shelter, so why should we fire them?
In the refugee camp of Unchiprang, a Bangladeshi refugee official on Thursday urged the Rohingya to return to their country by 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.
Some refugees on the repatriation lists – who according to the authorities were established with the assistance of UNHCR – said they did not want to return.
In Jamtoli Refugee Camp, one of the largest refugee camps near the town of Cox's Bazaar, 25-year-old Setara said her two children, aged 4 and 7, were on a list of repatriation, but not his parents. 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 on the repatriation list had taken refuge in other camps, hoping to disappear among the crowded streets of refugees, humanitarian workers and refugees. Bangladeshi soldiers, very animated Thursday by the trade and other activities.
Bangladesh had planned to return an initial group of 2,251 people by mid-November, at a rate of 150 per day.
Officials from Myanmar, speaking Thursday night in Naypyitaw, said they were ready to welcome the refugees. Despite these assurances, human rights activists have stated that conditions have not yet been met to allow the Rohingya to return home.
The exodus began 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 crackdown have led the UK and several governments to accuse Myanmar of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
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.
Refugees have survived village looting, rape and killings in Myanmar, but for many, life in Bangladesh's squalid refugee camps is bleak.
Refugees who arrived in the past year joined a wave of 250,000 Rohingya Muslims who escaped forced labor, religious persecution and violent attacks by Buddhist groups in Myanmar in the early 1990s.
Access to education and employment is far from assured.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who hopes to retain power in the December elections, has repeatedly complained that hosting more than one million Rohingyas would tax local resources.
Repatriation negotiations have been ongoing for months, but plans to begin sending refugees back in January have been canceled as aid workers and Rohingya feared their return would be violated.
Foreign leaders, including US Vice President Mike Pence, this week criticized Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on the sidelines of the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (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.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country would continue to work with international partners, including the United Nations, "to ensure that the Rohingyas themselves participate in all decisions about their future."
