Uncertainty clouds start of Rohingya return slated for Thursday

[bluesky]

https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/201...-start-of-rohingya-return-slated-for-thursday
Uncertainty clouds start of Rohingya return slated for Thursday
Senior Correspondent and Cox’s Bazar Correspondent, bdnews24.com

Published: 2018-11-15 01:12:27.0 BdST Updated: 2018-11-15 02:58:25.0 BdST

• 
  
  A shelter building constructed at a Rohingya repatriation centre is seen in Gunndum near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, November 14, 2018. Reuters
  

A cloud of uncertainty hangs over the planned start of repatriation of the Rohingya refugees scheduled for Thursday at the last minute amid calls from the UN to halt the process.

Reuters news agency, citing an unnamed source, reported on Wednesday night that the process would not begin as planned because “nobody wants to go back".

Neither Bangladesh nor Myanmar has said anything officially. Myanmar Ambassador Lwin Oo said on Monday that the repatriation would start as planned.

On Wednesday, officials of Bangladesh’s Refugee Repatriation and Relief Commission met representatives of different international agencies and the government, but no-one was willing to disclose the outcome of the discussions.

The first group of Rohingyas selected for repatriation was not taken to the transit camp set up near the border until Wednesday night, according to Refugee Repatriation and Relief Commissioner Mohammad Abul Kalam.

“A few other jobs are yet to be done. We are working. Let’s see what happens tomorrow morning. We want to be optimistic,” he told bdnews24.com.

“We’ve made preparations. The issue will be clear by (Thursday) morning,” he added.

According to an agreement between the two countries, 2,260 Rohingyas of 485 families from Jamtoli refugee shelter at Ukhia and Teknaf’s Unchiprang shelter in Cox’s Bazar will be repatriated in 15 days, with 150 per day.

The repatriation commission has been preparing over the past few days for sending back the first batch of Rohigyas through the Ghumdhum border in Bandarban’s Naikkhyangchharhi.

The transit camp has been set up two and a half kilometres from the border with arrangements for the brief stay of the Rohingya returnees.

The United Nations, however, has urged Bangladesh to scrap the plan of starting the repatriation now, saying conditions in Myanmar are not yet safe for the Rohingyas, in part because the Buddhists in the country have been protesting against the repatriation.

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Tuesday warned that the Rohingyas’ lives would be at "serious risk" if they were sent back to Myanmar.

Forcibly returning or expelling refugees and asylum-seekers to their home country would violate international law which forbids it to places where returnees face threats of persecution or their lives would be endangered, she added.

More than 700,000 Rohingyas have crossed the border to join around 400,000 refugees in Bangladesh after Myanmar launched an army operation against the minority Muslims on Aug 25 last year after insurgent attacks on security posts.

The UN has dubbed the operation ‘ethnic cleansing’ and found Myanmar military’s ‘genocidal intent’ in the crackdown on the Rohingyas.

Following pressure from the international community and widespread criticism, Myanmar signed an agreement with Bangladesh in the beginning of this year to take back the recently displaced Rohingyas, but the process was delayed for different reasons.

Finally on Oct 30, the two countries agreed to start the process in mid-November.

The global body’s refugee agency UNHCR earlier this year signed agreements with both Myanmar and Bangladesh to ensure voluntary, safe and dignified return of the refugees.

BBC Bangla reported that UNHCR representatives spoke to 50 families on the repatriation list to be confirmed that they were returning on own volition.

The UN agency handed a report on the discussions with the Rohingyas to the repatriation commission on Wednesday.

Kalam said he forwarded the report to Dhaka.

Citing a senior official at the commission, BBC Bangla said the 150 Rohingyas on the list of the first batch for repatriation do not want to return to Myanmar.

 

[bluesky]

A cloud of uncertainty hangs over the planned start of repatriation of the Rohingya refugees scheduled for Thursday at the last minute amid calls from the UN to halt the process.

Reuters news agency, citing an unnamed source, reported on Wednesday night that the process would not begin as planned because “nobody wants to go back".

Why the inept GoB is trying to repatriate the Rohingyas without the direct involvement of or arbitration by the international organs like UN? Rohingyas cannot be pushed back without a guarantee of their restoration of citizenship in Burma and every move must be policed by a watchdog peacekeeping army sponsored by the UN.

But, here this stupid BAL govt unilaterally contacts a fully matured group of Shaitan politicians of Burma and talk of love and love. Very funny!!

 

[SHARMA BHOPALI]

Why the inept GoB is trying to repatriate the Rohingyas without the direct involvement of or arbitration by the international organs like UN? Rohingyas cannot be pushed back without a guarantee of their restoration of citizenship in Burma and every move must be policed by a watchdog peacekeeping army sponsored by the UN.

But, here this stupid BAL govt unilaterally contacts a fully matured group of Shaitan politicians of Burma and talk of love and love. Very funny!!

govt of bangladesh should wait for some more time .

 

[UKBengali]

Lol.

 

[ghost250]

http://m.theindependentbd.com/post/...V4GlAR1ZROmmPS1QtSD1KwqQ7arKT7g-rpfVY_Ma0g7V4

Bangladesh Army arrives in Rohingya camps as repatriations loom

Plans to send Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar on Thursday have gathered momentum, with reports of Bangladesh armed forces gathering in the Cox’s Bazar camps and allegations that refugees have been assaulted by the authorities for refusing to cooperate.

The army, police and paramilitary troops have moved into several of the camps, where over 700,000 Rohingya are living after fleeing a campaign of violence, described as genocide by a UN fact-finding mission, carried out by the Myanmar military in August 2017.

Noor Qadar, a 29-year-old Rohingya refugee in Jamtoli camp, said many families, even those not among the list approved for return by Myanmar, had gone into hiding.“The army is in every corner of the Jamtoli and Hakimpara camps, sitting and checking people and not letting them move between camps,” said Qadar. “People are too afraid to leave their houses or eat.
Some left our block at midnight using secret paths for other camps, especially Kutupalong, where there is not so much fear about repatriation.”


Jani, 30, a Rohingya living in camp 14, said the security presence had doubled in the past two days in several settlements, elevating the panic among the Rohingya. “When the sun sets the security teams come to every entry point in the camps and they don’t leave till the morning,” he said. “People are running away and spending days and nights in the forest or other camps.”

There have also been reports of Bangladesh camp officials, known as CICs, assaulting Rohingya who have refused to cooperate. In a video, verified by the Guardian, Ata Ullah, a Rohingya leader in Chakmarkul Camp 21 alleges that he was beaten in the office of a CIC officer “with a large stick” on Monday after he was unable to provide them with list of Rohingya in his camp. “They stepped on my neck, I could not stand it,” Ullah said in the footage. “You can see from my face how I was beaten.”

It is the latest signal that the repatriations, due to begin on Thursday, may not be voluntary, despite multiple assurances by the Bangladesh foreign secretary and the refugee commissioner that they would not force any Rohingya to go back against their will.Dozens of Rohingya families interviewed by the Guardian, who were placed on a list of 2,200 refugees “approved” for return by Myanmar without their consent, said they did not want to return under the current conditions. Many had fled the camps and gone into hiding, while for others the prospect of going back was so alarming they had attempted suicide.

Advertisement

Nurul Islam, a Rohingya community leader in Unchiprang refugee camp, Cox’s Bazar, said that up to 50 families in the vicinity hadgone into hiding.

“Last week the officials told several families sternly that they would no more be allowed to stay in Bangladesh and have to return to Myanmar and almost all of them have disappeared from their shacks in our camp in the past three or four days,” Islam told the Guardian.

“Like all other Rohingya they are too scared to return to Burma. So, they have gone into hiding.”Forced repatriation also risks splitting up families. Osiullah, who like many other Rohingya uses one name, said he had gone into hiding after discovering that three of his children, the youngest aged five, were on the list for return while he, his wife and three other children were not.

“I got terribly scared to find the names of only three of children listed,” he said. “I’ve heard they will force us cross the border. We slipped out of the camp because I could not take the risk.”

The UN has repeatedly called for a halt to the repatriation plans. UNHCR said it would not be facilitating or providing assistance for return, other than interviewing Rohingya on the list and assessing their willingness to go back. On Tuesday Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, condemned the “terror and panic” it was causing Rohingya who were at “imminent risk of being returned to Myanmar against their will.”

There has been no statement on the issue from Myanmar’s state counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been at the Asean summit in Singapore this week. At a meeting with US vice president Mike Pence on Wednesday afternoon, Aung San Suu Kyi was pressed about how those responsible for the Rohingya crisis were being held accountable, to which she responded that people had “different views”.

The most vocal condemnation of the Rohingya crisis came from Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who said: “It would seem that Aung San Suu Kyi is trying to defend what is indefensible.”

Speaking on the sidelines before his summit address, he added: “They are actually oppressing these people to the point of killing them, mass killing.”The Guardian.

 

[bluesky]

I just do not understand what game the GoB is playing with the Rohingyas? Very strange to see the GoB has not sought counsel from the UN and other international bodies and world powers, and suddenly this rush to expel the Rohingyas.

 

[Nilgiri]

I just do not understand what game the GoB is playing with the Rohingyas? Very strange to see the GoB has not sought counsel from the UN and other international bodies and world powers, and suddenly this rush to expel the Rohingyas.

What you expect? Rohingya are just used as political pawns by Hasina. It was very clear to @Chinese-Dragon and many others.

Canada literally offered recently to host some Rohingya here....Bangladesh govt refused (just like they refused UN classification and assistance for these refugees to improve their conditions using UN funding where they are). Instead everything has to be laundered through Bangladesh govt, geee I wonder why.

It was never ever about genuinely helping these Rohingya people by your govt, but how to use them and abuse them for her political gains.

Almost none of them want to return to Myanmar which was part of the conditions that Myanmar put in the agreement signed with Bangladesh (for their return to MM).....so what is BD going to do next? Force them at gunpoint?

@Oscar @That Guy @Aung Zaya @dy1022

 

[UKBengali]

It was never ever about genuinely helping these Rohingya people by your govt, but how to use them and abuse them for her political gains.

And how exactly is Hasina going to force 700,000 Rohingya back against their will genius?

Now stop talking about topics that are none of your concern and toddle of to your Indian section and try to show some interest in your "country"

 

[bluesky]

And how exactly is Hasina going to force 700,000 Rohingya back against their will genius?

Now stop talking about topics that are none of your concern and toddle of to your Indian section and try to show some interest in your "country"

Oh, yes!! His own country India has successfully expelled Rohingyas at gunpoint. But, will the GoB do the same? The pictures show very fierce-looking BD military guys with guns.