Deportation within days
While a Bangladeshi delegation is still working to verify the nationality of the 208 trafficking victims rescued by Myanmar on Thursday, the chief minister of Rakhine state has said the “Bangladeshi migrants” would be repatriated within days.
Myanmar officials maintain that all the 208 boatpeople are “Bangladeshis”. But Reuters news agency found at least eight of them are Rohingya Muslims, after interviewing a group of victims at Kyauk Taw in Rakhine state where they have been kept.
A six-member delegation -- three each from the Bangladesh embassy in Yangon and Bangladesh consulate in Sittwe -- yesterday went to the Rakhine state to interview the rescued persons for verifying their nationality, a foreign ministry official said.
If the delegation finds any Bangladeshi national among the boatpeople, it will send the name to the home ministry for further verification, he said yesterday.
The home ministry, if satisfied, will contact the Bangladesh embassy in Yangon and take necessary steps for the repatriation.
Meanwhile, Dhaka has requested Myanmar not to take any step before the completion of the verification process, sources in the foreign ministry said. Dhaka firmly believes that most of the rescued persons are Myanmar nationals (Rohingya), they said.
But, Maung Maung Ohn, chief minister of Rakhine state, told a meeting at Daywar Nadi hall in Maungdaw Township: “We won't allow the Bangladeshi migrants to stay in Myanmar by opening refugee camps.”
“There have been negotiations between the border forces of both countries [Myanmar and Bangladesh] about sending the migrants home. We are going to plan the transfer of those migrants within days,” Myanmar Eleven, a Myanmar news portal, quoted the chief minister as saying.
The chief minister said: “I can assure them that the migrants weren't allowed to stay. However, if any are located in rescue operations, we will save them. And then we will send them back to their country.
“We have no plan to open more camps in Myanmar. We will send them to the Bangladeshi border rapidly after security checks have been carried out. We will implement our plan within days. At present, the Bangladeshi government is yet to make an official statement on the issue.”
Saw Naing, deputy director of the immigration department in Maungdaw, said: “At present, we are collecting details about the migrants. We will present our findings to the embassy and transfer them. We will connect with the battalion commander of the no.42 Border Guards from Bangladesh to arrange the transfer plan.”
Meanwhile, Major Abu Rasel Siddiqui, acting commander of 42 Battalion of Bangladesh Border Guard in Teknaf, told our Cox's Bazar correspondent yesterday that no body from Myanmar contacted them after giving an incomplete list of 200 rescued boatpeople, on Sunday.
However, the incomplete list was sent to the BGB headquarters in Dhaka, he said yesterday.
Myanmar always describes Rohingya Muslims as "Bengalis" and does not recognise them as its citizens. Thousands of them have fled to Bangladesh and other countries to escape persecution over the years.
Another foreign ministry source said Myanmar, under pressure from the international community amid Southeast Asian migrant crisis, is trying to label their own nationals as Bangladeshis to avoid their responsibilities.
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