Repatriation process expected to begin with 1,000 Rohingyas

Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen today said the government wants to begin repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar this year, initially with around 1,000 of the refugees.

"We have given a list of over 3,000. We need to make sure that families are not separated," he told reporters at the foreign ministry in the capital.

The foreign secretary said they will get three months in hand if they start preparations from September to begin the repatriation.

He said a Bangladesh delegation will be visiting Myanmar next month while a team from Myanmar will be here to talk to Rohingyas as part of confidence-building measures.

The government of Bangladesh has said the drastic reduction of humanitarian assistance for this persecuted population, which is growing with around 30,000 newborns every year inside the camps, is compounding the crisis.

Further delay to commence safe, voluntary, and sustainable repatriation and shortage of humanitarian support may put the entire region at risk, said the foreign ministry yesterday.

The international community should continue providing necessary humanitarian support till their sustainable repatriation, the ministry said.

The Rohingya crisis has stepped into the seventh year without any solution.

The socio-economic, demographic, and environmental cost of sheltering more than 1.2 million Rohingyas for such a long time is pushing Bangladesh to the limit, it said.

These forcibly displaced people have aspirations and rights to return to their homeland in a safe and sustainable manner.

"It is the collective responsibility of the international community to find a durable solution to this crisis in its place of origin in Myanmar," it said.

Rohingyas are developing their skills, working as volunteers and their children are attending learning facilities in their language following the Myanmar curriculum in the camps in Bangladesh so that they can retain their cultural identity and can smoothly reintegrate into Rakhine society upon return.