Myanmar team in Bangladesh camps for Rohingya repatriation pilot project

[Homo Sapiens]

Myanmar team in Bangladesh camps for Rohingya repatriation pilot project​

Nearly one million Rohingya Muslim refugees are living in camps in the border district of Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh​

A Rohingya refugee boy sits on a stack of burnt materials after a fire broke out and destroyed thousands of shelters at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, March 24, 2021.REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Reuters
Published : 16 March 2023, 02:35 AM
Updated : 16 March 2023, 02:35 AM

A Myanmar delegation is visiting Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh this week to verify a few hundred potential returnees for a pilot repatriation project, though a Bangladeshi official said it was unclear when they would be going home.

Nearly one million Rohingya Muslim refugees are living in camps in the border district of Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, most having fled a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.

Bangladesh's Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner in Cox's Bazar, Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, told Reuters there was a list of 1,140 Rohingya who are to be repatriated through the pilot project, of which 711 have had their cases cleared.
The remaining 429 on the list, including some new-born babies, were still being processed.

"We're ready" to send them back, Rahman said, but added he did not know when that could begin.

A Myanmar junta spokesman did not answer phone calls from Reuters seeking comment.

China's ambassador to Bangladesh Yao Wen hoped that the first batch of displaced Rohingya would be repatriated to Myanmar soon while China continued its role as mediator, the official Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha news agency reported.
Hitherto, Myanmar's military junta, which took power in a coup two years ago, has shown little inclination to take back any Rohingya.

"The international community are playing ping pong with the Rohingya," Tun Khin, president of Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, told Reuters. "Rohingya refugees face an impossible choice. Stay in terrible conditions in refugee camps where rations are being cut, or return to their home country where genocidal policies continue.

"This is not a repatriation process, it is a public relations process. Governments want to claim progress when in fact the core issues of the treatment of Rohingya by the Myanmar military are ignored."

Crammed with tens of thousands of huts made of bamboo and thin plastic sheets, living conditions in the camps are dangerous.

Two years ago, a massive blaze killed at least 15 refugees and destroyed more than 10,000 homes, and earlier this month another fire left 12,000 people without shelter.

Aside from longstanding problems like lack of employment and educational opportunities, the camps also suffer from surging crime.

Desperate to find somewhere better, many Rohingya have risked their lives making the hazardous sea voyage from Bangladesh to countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.

According to estimates from the United Nations at least 348 Rohingya are thought to have died at sea last year.

Myanmar team in Bangladesh camps for Rohingya repatriation pilot project

A Myanmar delegation is visiting Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh this week to verify a few hundred potential returnees for a pilot repatriation project, though a Bangladeshi official said it was unclear when they would be going home.

bdnews24.com

 

[bluesky]

Myanmar team in Bangladesh camps for Rohingy

Myanmar team in BD because this is what China wants now. But why China should want it? China has almost made inroads into the BoB via Burma and America and Western powers want to stop and reverse the process.

But, they need BD's physical support to make it happen. This is why their high-level delegations have been visiting BD so often and luring BD to involve in the Indo-Pacific team.

Now, China has come into action to offset America and MM wants Rohingya to go back to their houses in Arakan.

However, BD must stick to the American QUAD alliance. This will make it impossible for China to make inroads into the BoB.

 

[Homo Sapiens]

However, BD must stick to the American QUAD alliance. This will make it impossible for China to make inroads into the BoB.

Bangladesh should avoid any group politics. It should maintain cordial relation with both Western and Chinese camps. We can look at Singapore's foreign policy on how to remain pro-western and not to antagonize China.

China making an inroad in Bay of Bengal is not a problem for Bangladesh, it is a problem for India. Making Bay of Bengal an Indian lake is the biggest threat to our independence and sovereignty. God forbid if we someday found ourselves as the victim of Indian aggression, we can only last as long as our access to the world remain open through Bay of Bengal. So, any foreign power, be it China, USA or any other friendly countries of Bangladesh are welcome in Bay of Bengal to challenge Indian hegemony. We also need to build an armed forces and especially a Navy not too much inferior to Indian Eastern Naval command.