After a long gap, Myanmar has agreed to take back its nationals, living in the refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district, in the next two months.
The development is seen as a major breakthrough in the decades-old humanitarian crisis, as Myanmar had earlier refused to take back those who fled to the bordering Bangladesh districts from Rakhine state due to ethnic conflicts.
The decision was taken at crucial talks between Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md. Shahidul Haque and visiting Myanmar Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Thant Kyaw on Sunday. Mr. Haque told the media that, initially Myanmar would take back 2,415 people, who have already been verified by the country’s authorities as its nationals.
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According to Bangladesh authorities, some 32,000 Rohingya refugees have been living in the two camps of Cox’s Bazar, from where the initial repatriation will begin.
During the talks, Dhaka sought a timeframe from Myanmar for the repatriation.
In addition to the refugees in the camps, an estimated three lakh to five lakh undocumented Rohingyas are living in the bordering areas adjoining Myanmar.
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Bangladesh is learnt to have also proposed a security dialogue with Myanmar as a confidence building measure. The draft of the memorandum of understanding on this proposal was handed over. The two countries share a 300 km border and have agreed to control it jointly to tackle drug and human trafficking, arms smuggling and illegal movement of people. The Myanmar side proposed a liaison office to coordinate the border management.
Meanwhile, Myanmar has released provisional census data which show that the country has a population of 51.4 million people. However, an estimated 1.09 million people in northern Rakhine state were not counted and most of those who wanted to identify themselves as Rohingyas were not enumerated.