Myanmar transit camps empty while Rohingya fear return

The Rakhine State Transit Camp in Myanmar is ready to welcome 150 Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh every day.

But most of the time it is completely empty, the members of the stateless minority fearing to return to a place violently driven. of the army, and Myanmar is doing little effort to reassure them, things will be different this time around.

"We are ready to receive them since January, when we opened," said Win Khaing, director of immigration at Nga Khu Ra. They stayed in the desolate camp with reporters on Friday as part of a two-day trip to the area.

The result is a stalemate, while Myanmar immigration officials wait in empty offices to prepare biometric documents. with little or no work to do except greet visiting delegations and journalists.

Less than 200 Rohingya Muslims were resettled in the Rakhine State of northern Myanmar among the 700,000 who fled a violent army. In 1965, Rohingya women reported being raped by security forces, while witnesses described summary executions and a merciless campaign of violence that the United Nations described as "ethnic cleansing" (19659006). The military admitted a case of execution of captured suspects.

Even the limited number of Rohingyas who returned did so in troubled circumstances.

In April, the government trumpeted the arrival of a Rohingya family of five later slammed as a PR coup because it appeared that they were coming from a buffer zone between both countries technically part of Myanmar.

Local authorities have nonetheless created a sign with several large pictures of the family near the border, announcing the

In recent months, Myanmar has said that dozens of returnees have been repatriated after illegally crossing Bangladesh.

They were sent back to Bangladesh by boat, but they were accidentally sent back to Myanmar after being treated in the transit camp.

Bangladesh does not recognize them as legitimate returnees. "We did not go to Bangladesh" –

Nine Rohingya was reportedly released from prison in May after being illegally turned away by the Myanmar authorities.

But cracks quickly appeared in history, with some claiming that they had never been to Bangladesh and that they had been "repatriated" from Myanmar.

"We were arrested last November (in Myanmar) and sentenced to four years' imprisonment each under the Immigration Act," said Yar Sein, 35, a farmer and father. of four children

"We were arrested from school and accused of coming from Bangladesh We were not in Bangladesh."

Long delays in repatriation also stretched relations with Bangladesh, which plans to send a protest note after a 10-year-old rohingya boy in the buffer zone was hit by a bullet from Myanmar says that he fired on people trying to damage the border fence.

As the two countries blame each other for this delay, Myanmar has embarked on what is a massive development project in the north of the country. Rakhine, bulldoze the Rohingya cities and remake the entire landscape in the name of rebuilding.

The UN said the conditions in Rakhine are not ripe for safe, voluntary and dignified repatriation, but signed an agreement with Myanmar to assess conditions on the ground. to help refugees make an informed decision.

– "Nobody" in the camps –

Myanmar was sentenced globally for its treatment of Rohingya, and Amnesty International said this week that several millet A US report on human trafficking (TIP) downgraded Myanmar on Thursday for failing to protect Rohingya Muslims from fleeing repression and leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and networks of traffickers

Heathing, the chief of the army, said last month that the Rohingyas have nothing to fear as long as they stay in the country. "designated" places for them, raising fears that they would be relocated to the conditions of apartheid where they escaped

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