The Crime Desk: Myanmar has agreed to repatriate some Rohingyas soon under the pilot project. In the first batch, the country wants to start repatriating 3,000 verified Rohingya. This decision was taken at the Bangladesh-Myanmar director general meeting held on Monday (September 4) in Nay Pyi Taw. A diplomat who was present at the meeting said that there was a good discussion with Myanmar.
They want to start repatriation as soon as possible. It has been decided that the repatriation process will begin with three thousand registered Rohingyas in the first phase. It can be as fast as possible. However, when exactly this repatriation will start, it cannot be said. They can take back 5,000 Rohingya in the second phase and 7,000 in the next phase. However, it is not right to say for sure that they will definitely take back this number of Rohingyas.
Mentioning that the morale of the Rohingyas should be raised before the repatriation starts, the diplomat said that those who will be repatriated should have their morale raised first. Then those among them who want to go voluntarily will be sent. We want sustainable repatriation. As if the Rohingyas continue to go to the next step after the first step. A delegation from Myanmar is scheduled to come to Cox’s Bazar to work on boosting the morale of the Rohingya.
In the meeting, the director general of the Myanmar department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Md. Mainul Kabir, led from Dhaka. On the other hand, the Naypyidaw delegation was led by AUNGK, Director General of Political Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Bangladesh signed an agreement with Myanmar on repatriation in November 2017 on behalf of China. In November 2018, an initiative was taken to start the process of repatriating Rohingyas based on a bilateral agreement with Myanmar. But that initiative failed.
