A delegation from Myanmar is visiting Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh this week to verify a few hundred potential returnees for a pilot repatriation project.
Nearly a million Rohingya are living in camps in Bangladesh in the border district of Cox’s Bazar, 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 news agency there was a list of 1,140 Rohingya who are to be repatriated under the pilot project, of which 711 have had their cases cleared. So far, Myanmar’s military government, which took power in a coup two years ago, has shown little inclination to take back Rohingya refugees.
Crammed in tens of thousands of huts made of bamboo and thin plastic sheets, the refugees’ living conditions in the camps are dangerous. A fire earlier this month left 12,000 people without shelter. 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.
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