Junta to bring back 700-plus Muslims from Bangladesh in first repatriation batch

By Admin 05 Apr 2023

DMG Newsroom
5 April 2023, Maungdaw

Myanmar’s military regime has verified more than 700 Muslim refugees for repatriation so far as part of a pilot project agreed with the Bangladeshi government, according to the April 4 issue of the junta-controlled newspaper Myanma Alinn.

Bangladeshi authorities have put forward a list of 87,000 Muslims for repatriation, of whom the regime has found evidence of over 56,000 having lived in Myanmar before fleeing to Bangladesh while over 30,000 are undocumented, and some 900 have been labelled by the Home Affairs Ministry as terrorists, according to the regime mouthpiece.

Apart from the 700 Muslims to be repatriated, the regime is also verifying more than 400 others who are their family members, junta-appointed immigration minister U Myint Kyaing was quoted by junta media as saying.

The regime also plans to bring back over 300 followers of the Hindu faith who have already been verified. The junta took diplomats from China, India, Bangladesh and Thailand and representatives from the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance to Maungdaw last month to show them its preparations for repatriation.

The regime has prepared transit camps in Taungpyo Letwe, Nga Khu Ya and Hla Poe Kaung in southern Maungdaw Township for returnees from Bangladesh.

Muslim refugees have indicated, however, that they will not return to Myanmar unless they are guaranteed citizenship, safety and settlement in their places of origin.

According to the junta, the potential returnees must have lived in Myanmar, and must want to return to Myanmar of their own volition. In cases of children born in Bangladesh, both parents must have lived in Myanmar, and local Bangladesh courts must certify that the children were born after their parents arrived in Bangladesh.

The Arakan Army has said the regime is bringing displaced Muslims back into Myanmar with the hope of winning international recognition.

Conditions are not conducive to the return of Muslim refugees to Arakan State, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said in a March 20 report.

More than 700,000 Muslims fled to neighbouring Bangladesh when the Myanmar military carried out “clearance operations” following the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army’s attacks on several police outposts in 2017.