Dhaka [Bangladesh], May 9: Rohingya Muslims living in crowded Bangladeshi refugee camps say they will not return to Myanmar only to become to stuck again in camps offered by the Burmese military authorities.
"Returning to Myanmar without ensuring citizenship rights would make us unsafe again," Mohammad Rahimullah, a Rohingya man who recently visited Myanmar to see resettlement arrangement made by Myanmar as part of an effort to repatriate refugees from Bangladeshi camps, told DPA by phone on Monday.
He said the Rohingya Muslims do not want to get confined in yet another camp in Myanmar.
"We want to go back to our land, to our village," he said, adding that they were told that the Rohingya would have to stay in camps for at least five months before they could possibly return to their villages.
"It is hard to believe that we would be transferred to our villages from the camps," he said.
Bangladesh has been hosting more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims in squalid camps after they fled persecution in the Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Nearly 750,000 of them crossed the border in the face of a military crackdown on the minority group in August 2017.
Both Myanmar and Bangladesh have been engaged in consultation since then for a safe and voluntary repatriation. Previous efforts for Rohingya return failed twice in 2018 and 2019 amid the refugee's lack of trust in the Myanmar government.
Twenty Rohingya Muslim refugees along with seven Bangladeshi officials visited the town of Maungdaw and adjoining villages in northern Rakhine State on Friday to see the resettlement arrangements made by Myanmar as it initiated a process for repatriation of over 1,100 Rohingya on pilot basis.
"We will return only if our demands are met and our safety is ensured," said Mohammad Selim, who was also a member of the Rohingya team in the one-day return visit.
Selim echoed Rahimullah that they want to go back to their villages, not to another set of camps in Myanmar.
Rahimullah added that the Myanmar authorities offered to issue returning Rohingya with "embassy cards" instead of National Identity card for the Rohingya identity. The "embassy card" would treat Rohingya as foreigners, he added.
"We don't want to be guests in our own land," said Rahimullah in rejecting the repatriation offer under the current arrangements.
He demanded restoration of full citizenship rights for the Rohingya before they are returned to Myanmar.
The United Nations Refugee agency, UNHCR, says refugee returns must be voluntary, safe, dignified and based on an informed choice.
"No refugee should be forced to do so," said a statement issued on Friday by the UNHCR in Bangladesh.
Source: Qatar Tribune
