Arakan News Agency
Hundreds of Rohingya refugees living on a strip of unclaimed land along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border protested Wednesday against their repatriation to Arakan state, saying they would not return without guarantees for their safety.
The demonstration took place a day after Bangladesh and Myanmar officials met in a Arakan village and agreed in principle to resettle the refugees stranded along the border, according to a deputy commissioner from Bandarban, a southeastern Bangladeshi district, who attended the meeting.
“We demonstrated early morning Wednesday against the resettlement plan that does not guarantee our security,” Dil Mohammad, organizer of the demonstration, told BenarNews, “We have announced today that we will not return unless our safety is ensured and a U.N. force is deployed.”
A YouTube video of the demonstration showed protesters raising clenched fists and chanting slogans as Myanmar soldiers and other officials watched from behind a barbed-wire fence.
According to Mohammad, the demonstrators demanded that Myanmar authorities must recognize Rohingya as citizens of the country and allow journalists and international groups to investigate widespread allegations of killings and other atrocities targeting members of the ethnic minority.
“Unless the demands are met, the Rohingya stranded at the no-man’s land will in no way return to Myanmar,” he said.
Officials could not provide exact numbers because the refugees haven’t gone through a verification process, but the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) estimates that about 1,300 families, or approximately 5,300 people, live near a canal in the so-called no man’s land between the two countries. Bangladeshi officials estimate that 6,500 are sheltering there.
At least 688,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh amid a military offensive launched in response to attacks on police and army outposts in northern Arakan State by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) in August 2017. The U.N. and United States have labeled Myanmar’s counter-offensive as “ethnic cleansing.”
In November, Dhaka and Naypyidaw signed a bilateral agreement to repatriate some 700,000 Rohingya sheltering in refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh. The process has not begun but, last week, Bangladesh’s home minister handed Myanmar officials a list of more than 8,000 refugees whose information is now being verified by Naypyidaw for repatriation.
UNHCR, in a statement released Tuesday, reiterated that “everyone has the right to seek asylum, just as they also have the right to return home when they deem the time and circumstances right.”
“People who have fled violence in their country must be guaranteed safety and protection, and must be consulted on their future. Any decision to return must be voluntary, based upon a free and informed choice,” the U.N. agency said.
