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Associated Press

No Rohingya Muslims staying in crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh turned up for a planned repatriation to Myanmar on Thursday because they want to be guaranteed safety and citizenship first, officials said.
Bangladesh refugee commissioner Abul Kalam said none of the 295 families interviewed since Tuesday by the Bangladesh government and the UN’s refugee agency had agreed to return to Myanmar.
“Not a single Rohingya wants to go back without their demands being met,” he told reporters.
Rohingya Muslims have long demanded that Myanmar should give them citizenship, safety and their own land and homes they left behind.




Myanmar earlier said the repatriation would start on Thursday. The Buddhist-majority country has certified more than 3,000 refugees from more than 1,000 families as eligible for repatriation.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said her government will not force the refugees to return and the repatriation will only happen if they are willing.
More than 700,000 Rohingya fled across the border to Bangladesh after Myanmar’s military began a harsh counter-insurgency campaign against Rohingya in August 2017 in response to an insurgent attack.
The army-led campaign involved mass rapes, killings and the burning of homes.
Myanmar has refused to recognise Rohingya as citizens or even as one of its ethnic groups, rendering them stateless, and they also face other forms of state-sanctioned discrimination.

The UNHCR said in a statement on Thursday that many Rohingya interviewed actually want to go home if the conditions are met.
“Many stated that they do hope to go home to Myanmar as soon as conditions allow and that assurances regarding their citizenship status, freedom of movement, and security in Myanmar could be provided,” it said.
It said UN agencies need access to the refugees’ home areas.
Banned from Bangladesh schools, Rohingya are exposed to extremism
“Building confidence is essential … it is essential that UNHCR and UNDP have more predictable and effective access to refugees’ places of origin and potential areas of return in Rakhine state,” it said.
Officials said the situation in the camps was calm on Wednesday and Thursday, unlike in November last year, when thousands protested what they feared might be a forced repatriation then.

Nevertheless, Ramzan Begum said her mother-in-law had fled their home in the refugee camp for an unknown destination on Wednesday night and had not returned on Thursday.
“She told us she will not go back [to Myanmar] and left the home last night,” Begum said.
Many refugees have said they want to go back under direct UN supervision, not under the Myanmar government.
Myanmar and Asean must end Rohingya refugee crisis: experts
A UN-established investigation last year recommended the prosecution of Myanmar’s top military commanders on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for the crackdown on the Rohingya.
Myanmar dismissed the allegations.


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Malaysia boat tragedy reignites concern over rising toll of Rohingya sea exodus

7 dead, hundreds missing after migrant boat from Myanmar sinks off Malaysia-Thailand border

Why China should lead commission for a phased Rohingya repatriation

Rohingya Muslims

No Rohingya turn up for planned repatriation to Myanmar

A Rohingya girl in a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on Thursday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Rohingya refugee children watch Myanmarese and Chinese offcials arrive at Nayapara camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Thursday, Aug.22, 2019. Bangladesh's refugee commissioner said Thursday that no Rohingya Muslims turned up to return to Myanmar from camps in the South Asian nation. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)

A driver rests on a bus that was to be used to repatriate Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar, in the Shalbagan camp in Teknaf on August 22, 2019. - A fresh push to repatriate Rohingya refugees to Myanmar appeared August 22 to fall flat, with no one turning up to hop on five buses and 10 trucks laid on by Bangladesh. (Photo by MUNIR UZ ZAMAN / AFP)

Why forcing the Rohingya to go back to Myanmar will not have a happy ending

A Rohingya woman and her child are detained at a police station after a fishing boat carrying more than 60 Rohingya refugees was found beached at Rawi island in Thailand on June 12. Photo: Reuters

A Rohingya refugee documents decades of horrors as a member of Myanmar’s persecuted ethnic minority

A Rohingya refugee prays at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia, Bangladesh, on August 25, 2018. Photo: AFP

First, They Erased Our Name.

--ONE TIME USE ONLY--Handout image shows Habiburahman, February 26, 2019. Habiburahman â who goes by only one name â arrived in Australia from Myanmar, which was then known as Burma, by boat in 2009. But he has spent 18 years as a stateless refugee and cannot currently leave Australia. He is pleading for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Rohingya people he says are silenced by the Myanmar military government.[POST MAGAZINE]CREDIT: Sophie Ansel

Lieutenant General Ne Win, 41-year-old Supreme Commander of the Burmese Armed Forces, arrives at London Airport, 17 October 1952, for an official visit to Great-Britain, on his way to America. (Photo by - / AFP)

This August 30, 2017 photo shows Rohingya refugees reaching for food aid at Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhiya near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. - The International Organization for Migration said August 30 that at least 18,500 Rohingya had crossed into Bangladesh since fighting erupted in Myanmar's neighbouring Rakhine state six days earlier. (Photo by STR / AFP)

--ONE TIME USE ONLY, CONTACT PHOTGRAPHER FOR FURTHER USE]Nasihram village: it s a village, previously with a population  8000 inhabitants before and lots of people killed and the village entirely burned in June 2012. It no more exist. this is where Habiburaham, or Habib, a Myanmar born Rohingya refugee used to live, Sittwe is the capital of Rakhine State, Myanmar.[11AUGUST2019 FEATURE POST MAGAZINE]MANDATORY CREDIT: Sophie Ansel

A fire truck arrives at a site where houses are on fire in Sittwe, capital of the western state of Rakhine on June 15, 2012.  More than 30,000 people have been displaced by deadly sectarian clashes in western Myanmar, a senior local official said on June 14, and at least 29 people have been killed since June 8, with scores more wounded and nearly 2,600 homes burned across the state.    AFP PHOTO (Photo by AFP / AFP)

Militant Rohingya group raises funds in Malaysia by extorting money from Muslim refugees

Rohingya Muslims being sent back to Myanmar’s Rakhine state after being detained at sea en route to Malaysia in November last year. 2018. Photo: AFP

Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, left, and his Malaysian counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah shakes hands during the press conference at Foreign Ministry in Putrajaya, Malaysia, Thursday, March 14, 2019. (AP Photo/Yam G-Jun)

FILE - In this June 29, 2018, file photo, Rohingya refugees gather near a fence during a government organized media tour to a no-man's land between Myanmar and Bangladesh, near Taungpyolatyar village, Maung Daw, northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. A government security operation in Myanmar's Rakhine state sparked a humanitarian crisis that sent hundreds of thousands fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Min Kyi Thein, File)

Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, right, distributes blanket to a Rohingya refugee at Balukhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018. A special delegation led by Michelle Yeoh and Malaysian Armed Forces Chief Gen. Raja Mohamad Affandi Saturday visited Rohingya refugee camp and distributed relief material items apart from evaluating the impact of the aid. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Officials say refugees in crowded camps in Bangladesh want to be guaranteed safety and citizenship before returning



Officials say refugees in crowded camps in Bangladesh want to be guaranteed safety and citizenship before returning.


Myanmar

Bangladesh

United Nations

Human rights