The delegation left for Maungdaw in Rakhine State on a speedboat on Friday morning
A delegation of Rohingyas has gone to Rakhine State to check the conditions there before a possible repatriation process can start for the refugees who fled Myanmar and took refuge in Bangladesh.
The delegation left for Maungdaw in Rakhine on a speedboat named Saint Martin Cruise under the security of the BGB through the Teknaf-Myanmar transit jetty, Jaliaparasthal of Teknaf municipality on Friday morning.
A 27-member delegation headed by Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) Mohammed Mizanur Rahman travelled to Myanmar for the first time ahead of the possible repatriation process along with 20 Rohingya refugees including three women in the group.
At about 9pm on Thursday, the members of the Rohingya refugee team were brought from the camp and kept in a rest house of the Forest Department. Among them, there are 14 from Shalbon, four from Leather and two from Jadimura Rohingya camps.
Mizanur said: “We are going on a short trip to Rakhine to see the situation there as well as show the centres that the country's government has built for the Rohingyas in the process of possible repatriation. Details will be given after return.”
According to the Bangladesh-Myanmar Repatriation Agreement, the repatriation of Rohingyas must be voluntary, safe and dignified. No Rohingya can be forcibly sent back there.
Meanwhile, efforts are currently underway to start repatriation through the mediation of China. As part of this, a 17-member delegation led by Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maungdu Regional Director Aung Myew visited Bangladesh on March 15. At that time, after verifying the information of about 500 Rohingyas from 147 families in seven days, they returned on March 22.
According to the RRRC office, the Myanmar delegation recently verified the identity of 1,176 Rohingyas under the pilot project and is trying to repatriate them.
After this visit of the Rohingyas, representatives of the Myanmar government are scheduled to visit Bangladesh. Although the date of repatriation is not fixed, attempts are being made to start it this month.
Additional Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (Deputy Secretary) Khalid Hossain, who was with the delegation, said: “We left for Maungdu in Rakhine after 9am with the Rohingya delegation including three women. The aim of the trip is to check the conditions for the repatriation of Rohingyas to that country.”
Md Salim, a Rohingya who is part of the delegation, said: “We have left for Myanmar's Rakhine with government officials. Basically, we will see the centres created for Rohingyas there. In addition, the situation around there is also supposed to be explored. The joy of this trip will be the opportunity to see my own country at least after six years.”
Md Kashem, a leader of the Shalbon Rohingya camp in Teknaf, said: “This initiative is good for the Rohingyas. It will be clear if the situation in that country is favourable when the delegation visits Rakhine. All of us, who fled Myanmar and took refuge in this country, are only willing to return to our homeland, not to any other place.”
Since August 25, 2017, Bangladesh has been hosting over 1.2 million forcefully displaced Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar, most of whom arrived there after a military crackdown by Myanmar, which the UN has called a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" and other rights groups dubbed "genocide.”
