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Rohingya refugees must go home to Myanmar, Bangladesh tells UN

THE hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees currently in Bangladesh must go back to Myanmar, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told the UN today.

Ms Hasina told UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet that “the Rohingya are nationals of Myanmar and they have to be taken back.”

Over 700,000 Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, fled that country in 2017 after its military launched a “clearance operation” which involved razing entire villages and massacring their inhabitants.

Most remain in huge makeshift camps near Cox’s Bazar on the Bay of Bengal. Occasional attempts at repatriation have been made, but many refuse to take part, saying they do not believe they are safe in Myanmar. 

Refugee representatives told Ms Bachelet they were keen to go home if the UN could guarantee their rights would be respected, her office said.

“When … we can have our livelihoods again, and we can have land, and feel we are part of the country” they would be happy to go back, they told her, according to her office.

Since their expulsion the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi — in power when the ethnic cleansing operation took place — has been replaced by a military junta that has jailed thousands of political opponents, and armed revolt has intensified in several regions.

The Myanmar authorities have also shown no enthusiasm for taking them back. Bangladesh requested Chinese assistance in getting Myanmar to implement a November 2017 deal, itself brokered by China, to repatriate them.

“The UN is doing its best” to provide humanitarian aid, Ms Bachelet said, but “we need to ensure that they can go back to Myanmar — when there are conditions for safety and voluntary return.”

Rohingya were also at the heart of a government spat in India today, after Home Minister Amit Shah — considered Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-hand man — slapped down a housing minister for suggesting some would be housed in the capital.

Housing Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said Rohingya refugees would be given flats and police protection in New Delhi, adding that India “provides refuge to all.”

But the Home Ministry issued a statement within hours saying no accommodation would be provided to “illegal foreigners” who would be interned in camps until deported.

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