Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
At the Unchiprang camp, one of the sprawling refugee settlements near the city of Cox’s Bazar, a Bangladeshi refugee official implored the Rohingya to return to their country over a loudspeaker.
“We have arranged everything for you, we have six buses here, we have trucks, we have food. We want to offer everything to you. If you agree to go, we’ll take you to the border, to the transit camp,” he said.
“We won’t go!” hundreds of voices, including children’s, chanted in reply.
Bangladesh authorities said the repatriation of some of the more than 700,000 Rohingya would begin on Thursday if people were willing to go, despite calls from United Nations officials and human rights groups to hold off. But it’s not clear whether there are any volunteers.
Refugee Commissioner Abul Kalam declined to say what Bangladesh authorities would do if refugees refused to go, but according to a U.N.-brokered deal with Bangladesh and Myanmar, the Rohingya cannot be forced to repatriate.
“If they agree, we will take them to the transit camp and give them three days’ worth of food before handing over to Myanmar authorities,” he said.
The huge exodus of Rohingya began last August, after Myanmar security forces launched a brutal crackdown following attacks by an insurgent group on guard posts. The scale, organization and ferocity of the operation led to accusations from the international community, including the U.N., of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Most people in Buddhist-majority Myanmar do not accept that the Rohingya Muslims are a native ethnic group, viewing them as “Bengalis” who entered illegally from Bangladesh, even though generations of Rohingya have lived in Myanmar. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, as well as access to education and hospitals.
Despite assurances from Myanmar, human rights activists said Thursday the conditions are not yet safe for Rohingya refugees to go back.
“Nothing the Myanmar government has said or done suggests that the Rohingya will be safe upon return,” Human Rights Watch refugee rights director Bill Frelick said in a statement.
Bangladesh authorities have said they’ve worked with the U.N. refugee agency to compile lists of people willing to return to Myanmar.
At the Jamtoli refugee camp, 25-year-old Setara said she and her two children, ages 4 and 7, were on a repatriation list, but her parents were not. She said she had never asked to return to Myanmar, and that she had sent her children to a school run by aid workers on Thursday morning as usual.
“They killed my husband; now I live here with my parents,” said Setara, who only gave one name. “I don’t want to go back.”
She said that other refugees whose names have appeared on the Bangladesh government’s repatriation list had fled to other camps, hoping to disappear amid the crowded lanes of refugees, aid workers and Bangladeshi soldiers.