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Bangladesh and Myanmar are about to begin repatriating Rohingya Muslims who fled their homes in Myanmar during last year's military crackdown, despite warnings from the UN and defense groups human rights that they could not return home safely, and fear some refugees face persecution upon their return.
The two countries announced their intention to repatriate Thursday 2260 members of the minority in Myanmar. The Myanmar government has said it will accept up to 300 returnees a day and allow them to relocate to camps or their former homes.
UNHCR, the international body responsible for refugees, said the situation in this country of South-East Asia was "not yet conducive to voluntary return" and that it does not play no role in repatriation. Aid groups have expressed concern that refugees will be sent home involuntarily or permanently settled in camps.
"The Rohingya told us that they would eventually return home and to their communities in Myanmar, but they want guarantees that they can enjoy equal rights and citizenship, and they want those responsible for these acts of violence to be brought to justice, "said Evan Schuurman, head of the Save the Children charity.
The army and armed Buddhist civilians in Myanmar have driven some 730,000 people from their homes in Rakhine State as part of an operation apparently aimed at targeting Rohingya militants, during which thousands of civilians were injured or killed.
The crackdown prompted the UN to call for an investigation into the genocide and led to the international condemnation of the government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who had promised last year to allow Rohingya to return home. Myanmar authorities have built reception centers and a transit camp near the Bangladeshi border at Rakhine to accommodate returnees, although they are currently empty.
The presence in Bangladesh of more than one million Rohingya – including people who had fled previous violence in Rakhine – has raised security concerns in the region and put pressure on the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina , which faces the parliamentary elections of December 30. in Dhaka, fear that the vast camps of Cox & Bazaar, located near the border with Myanmar, will become permanent settlements.
China, regional hegemony, opposes the internationalization of the conflict – including the prosecution of military and police officers responsible for the violence – and supports the repatriation plan of the two countries.
The Myanmar Government has stated that it will provide returnees with temporary accommodation in border camps and provide them with food before allowing them to return home. If their houses are no longer standing, they will receive newly built housing or will be accommodated in a transit camp near the border.
However, humanitarian agencies and the United Nations, whose leaders have accused Myanmar of ethnic cleansing, have expressed concern over the possibility of permanently resettling refugees in camps. Buddhist leaders in some parts of Rakhine have ruled out the return of the Rohingya. Some 128,000 Rohingyas displaced during the 2012 violence are already living in 23 camps in and around Sittwe, the state capital.
Human Rights Watch called on Myanmar and Bangladesh to suspend the repatriation plan, saying returnees would be subjected to "extreme conditions".
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Fortify Rights, another human rights group, said this week that Bangladeshi authorities in the Cox Bazaar had attempted to "coercively collect" the refugees' biometric data as a prelude to their repatriation. . "When I think of my homeland, I think of fire and massacres," said the group, quoted by a Rohingya in Bangladesh last week. "I will not come back."
Myanmar and Bangladesh, under pressure from China and other regional powers, signed a bilateral repatriation agreement in November 2017.
Follow John Reed on Twitter: @JohnReedwrites
