No Rohingya turn up for repatriation to Myanmar

Frontier
MYANMAR
August 22, 2019
By AFP

 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. (AFP) 

TEKNAF — A fresh push to repatriate Rohingya refugees to Myanmar fall flat on Thursday, with no one turning up to hop on five buses and 10 trucks laid on by Bangladesh.

Members of the Muslim minority, 740,000 of whom fled a military offensive in 2017, are refusing to return without guarantees for their safety and a promise that they will at last be given citizenship by Myanmar.

Rohingya refugees refuse to return to Myanmar without rights guarantee

The Guardian
Hannah Ellis-Petersen 

Shaikh Azizur Rahman

Wed 21 Aug 2019 

Families chosen for repatriation are too scared to return and fear not being given citizenship

Rohingya children in a refugee camp in Bangladesh. None of the families interviewed about repatriation wanted to return to Myanmar. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images 

Plans to begin repatriating the thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled ethnic cleansing in Rahkine state in 2017 look likely to fail once again, with the refugees refusing to go back to Myanmar voluntarily.

Over 3,000 Rohingya were placed on a list of refugees and approved for repatriation as part of a fresh attempt by the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar to start sending back some of the more than one million refugees living in squalid camps in Cox’s Bazar.

Bangladesh refuses Rohingya fleeing 'ethnic cleansing'

Al Jazeera
28/11/2016

Eight boats carrying Rohingya refugees have been turned away by Bangladesh as thousands amass on the border.

Thousands of Rohingya refugees have crossed into Bangladesh by boat in recent weeks [File: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

Multiple boats packed with Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar have been turned back by Bangladesh border guards despite appeals by the country's opposition to provide shelter to the persecuted Muslim minority.