Muslim delegation to visit Arakan State to see conditions for repatriation

By Admin 05 May 2023

DMG Newsroom
4 May 2023, Sittwe

A 20-member delegation consisting of Bangladeshi officials and Muslim refugees is scheduled to visit Myanmar on May 5 to check the conditions in Arakan State’s Maungdaw region ahead of a supposed start of repatriation to Myanmar.

The delegation will enter Myanmar via a friendship bridge in Taungpyo Letwae, Maungdaw Township, and is scheduled to visit reception centres in Taungpyo Letwe, Nga Khu Ya and Hla Poe Kaung villages.

“The delegation will make a field trip to some reception centres in Arakan State to check conditions for repatriation of Muslims. The Myanmar junta will begin accepting Muslim returnees on May 15. The delegation comprises Bangladeshi officials and Muslim refugees,” Ko Kamal, a Muslim refugee from Kutupalong refugee camp, told DMG.

The delegation will be led by officials from Bangladesh’s Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC).

As the 20 participants in the delegation do not represent most Muslim refugees, but only those registered to be readmitted, many Muslims said that they had little confidence in them.

“Some delegation members do not represent Muslim refugees and they have been verified by the Myanmar junta. We don’t trust what they are doing. We will not return home without recognition as citizens and guarantees of security,” said an unnamed Muslim refugee from a refugee camp.

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

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

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.

The junta took diplomats from China, India, Bangladesh and Thailand and representatives from the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance to Maungdaw in March to show them its preparations for repatriation.

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

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.