Myanmar agrees to start taking back Rohingya this year

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SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh 

20.01.2021 

 

Tripartite meeting facilitated by China also agrees to keep global community in Rakhine State during repatriation.

Rohingya refugees sit on a Bangladesh Navy ship as they are relocated to the controversial flood-prone island Bhashan Char in the Bay of Bengal, in Chittagong on December 29, 2020. ( Stringer - Anadolu Agency ) 

 

Myanmar agreed to calls by Bangladesh at a tripartite meeting facilitated by China to start the much-awaited repatriation of Rohingya in the second quarter of this year, officials said Tuesday.

Bangladesh pushed hard to begin the repatriation, but Myanmar again delayed it, seeking time for logistical arrangements.

“We pushed to initiate the repatriation in the first quarter, but Myanmar sought more time for logistical arrangements and some physical arrangements. So we asked to start repatriation in the second quarter, and they agreed on it,” Bangladesh’s Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen said after the meeting.