A plan to begin repatriating hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar stalls amid protests by refugees at camps in Bangladesh and recriminations between the officials in both countries. Rohingya refugees slated to be among the first repatriated to Myanmar Nov. 15 refused to return because of concerns for their safety. Mohammad Abul Kalam, commissioner of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission of Bangladesh, told ucanews.com that no Rohingya were willing to go back to Myanmar's Rakhine state.
"We kept five buses ready to transfer 150 Rohingya consisting of 30 families from their camp to transit points, but so far nobody has arrived," Kalam said at mid-afternoon. He said the repatriation process would not be canceled. "We will come back on Sunday [Nov. 18] to motivate people for repatriation and see how it goes. It will continue in the coming days," he added. Kalam earlier told ucanews.com that if anyone was unwilling to return to Rakhine, they would not be forced. "No Rohingya will go back to Myanmar against their will," he said. The commission said that Bangladeshi officials had completed preparatory measures to begin returning 2,260 Rohingya who have been verified by Myanmar within two weeks.
There were reports of some 1,000 Rohingya refugees demonstrating in at least one camp Nov. 15. Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed in January to repatriate the more than 700,000 Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh to escape a Myanmar military crackdown in Rakhine that began in August 2017. Local and international media reported that the repatriation plan had created panic in the refugee community and many have fled the camps in recent weeks to avoid being listed for returning to Myanmar. Nur Alam, 34, a Rohingya from Balukhali refugee camp, told ucanews.com that he knows of no Rohingya willing to return to Rakhine.
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