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The U.S. voiced concern about Myanmar’s plans to repatriate Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh, saying conditions weren’t yet conducive for their return and noting those who had remained in the country continued to face severe restrictions on their freedom of movement.
Myanmar has said it plans to receive hundreds of returning Rohingya refugees from camps in Bangladesh beginning this week. It would be the first large-scale repatriations since Myanmar’s military launched a brutal campaign against the ethnic minority in August last year.
On Sunday, Win Myat Aye, Myanmar’s minister for social welfare, said up to 300 Rohingya would return daily from Bangladesh starting about Nov. 15, until 2,251 refugees had returned in total. He said the Rohingya would be processed and checked for contagious diseases, before being sent to transit camps and given clothes and rations.
The push for repatriation comes as international pressure grows on Myanmar to resolve the refugee crisis. Neighboring Bangladesh has accused Myanmar of finding excuses to delay taking refugees back, and China and Singapore have called for progress on returning them. On Friday, a press release came out from China’s Foreign Ministry applauding the repatriation steps—the broad details of which Myanmar outlined last month—saying: “This will create a good start for dealing with this complex historical issue and accumulate experience for the next step of repatriation.”
Rohingya refugees collect water at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh, in August this year.
Photo:
chandan khanna/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
While regional powers are eager for refugees to return, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that it doesn’t believe conditions in Myanmar are conducive for a safe return, and that Rohingya should be allowed to first see the conditions of their homes before deciding whether to resettle there permanently.
The U.S. government said Monday it was worried the planned repatriation was premature. “We have engaged both governments [Myanmar and Bangladesh] at the highest levels to express our serious concerns about premature returns, and to emphasize that, consistent with international practice, returns must be informed, voluntary, safe, dignified,” said a State Department spokeswoman. “One key factor is that the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya still living in Rakhine state continue to face severe restrictions on freedom of movement.”
Shahriar Alam, a Bangladesh foreign-affairs minister, didn’t respond to a request for comment Monday.
Rohingya activists worry that the refugees in Bangladesh will be forced to return to Myanmar against their will. They say some Rohingya slated for repatriation have fled into the forests surrounding the refugee camps to avoid being sent back. “This is a bad idea. This is bad news for Rohingya,” said Ro Nay San Lwin, a coordinator of the Free Rohingya Coalition, an activist group.
More than 100,000 Rohingya continue to live in internal-displacement camps in Myanmar. Many of the roughly 470,000 Rohingya in Myanmar who live outside those camps have limited freedom of movement, making it difficult for children to go to school or for farmers to access their fields, according to the U.N.
Ahammed Hossain, a Rohingya village leader who survived one of Myanmar’s biggest massacres, has investigated and listed crimes allegedly committed by the military against his people. “If we get justice, we might be happy again,” he said. Video: Daniel Epstein
Rohingya are a mainly Muslim ethnic minority living in western Myanmar who have endured decades of discrimination in the majority-Buddhist country. Despite living in Myanmar for generations, they are widely regarded as illegal immigrants, and most have been denied citizenship. Last year, Myanmar’s military launched attacks that the U.N. estimated killed 10,000 Rohingya and destroyed dozens of Rohingya villages, in response to attacks by Rohingya militants. Myanmar’s military has denied committing large-scale atrocities.
Myanmar’s government says Rohingya who return to Myanmar and are willing to accept a form of state identification that is short of citizenship will be allowed to travel in Maungdaw, a township in the western part of Rakhine state. Those who accept this identity card will have the chance to return to their lands, and rebuild their homes if they were destroyed in last year’s violence, Mr. Win Myat Aye said. However, many Rohingya reject the proposal, arguing they should be entitled to full citizenship from the outset. They have said Myanmar’s proposal would mean accepting a second-class status.
The 2,251 Rohingya cleared to return in November represent just a tiny portion of the more than 720,000 refugees who fled to Bangladesh after last year’s violence. Mr. Win Myat Aye said that in total about 5,000 Rohingya have been cleared to return to Myanmar so far—less than 1% of the total who fled across the border in the crisis.
—Yifan Wang in Hong Kong contributed to this article.
Write to Jon Emont at [email protected]
