Some 200 of them 'Bangladeshis'

Two hundred people, who were rescued from the Bay of Bengal by the Myanmar authorities last week, have reportedly been identified as Bangladeshis, according to the preliminary report of a team of Bangladesh missions in Myanmar.

The six-member team, comprised of officials from the Bangladesh embassy in Yangon and Bangladesh consulate in Sittwe, visited the temporary relief camp in Rakhine state on Monday and Tuesday and extensively interviewed the rescued ones to know their citizenship.

A senior official at the foreign ministry in Dhaka told The Daily Star that the team yesterday sent to the ministry a list of the 200 people with their details for the final verification of their citizenship.

He said the foreign ministry instantly forwarded the list to home ministry for further necessary actions.

The home ministry was asked to conduct the verification as early as possible so that the government could arrange a quick repatriation of the 200 if they were indeed Bangladeshi citizens, the official added.

After the rescue of 208 people from the sea on May 21, Myanmar officials claimed that all the boatpeople were Bangladeshis.

Meanwhile, the boatpeople were relocated to a temporary relief camp in Taungpyo Letwe Township on Monday so that they could be repatriated conveniently, reported a local newspaper.