Myanmar says it is sending a high-level delegation to overcrowded Rohingya camps in Bangladesh concerning the return of the refugees to their ethnic homeland of Rakhine state. RNA - Myanmar's UN Ambassador Hau Do Suan told a General Assembly meeting on Monday that his government will "dispatch a high level delegation to Cox's Bazar very soon, by the end of July, to explain to the displaced people the arrangements made for the repatriation and resettlement."
The ambassador said some 30,000 Rohingya had requested to return, of whom about 13,200 have been verified as former residents and "can return to Rakhine anytime."
UN Ambassador to Myanmar Christine Schraner-Burgener, however, complained that progress to address the refugee crisis has been far too slow.
"The only viable solution for the refugees is the safe, voluntary and dignified repatriation to Myanmar," she said, adding, "And the key responsibility for creating conducive conditions in Rakhine lies with Myanmar."
Myanmar has faced international pressure to allow the Rohingya Muslims to return to Rakhine and grant them citizenship rights.
The Rohingya Muslims were subjected to a campaign of killings, rape, arbitrary arrests, and arson attacks by the military and Buddhist mobs in Rakhine mainly between late 2016 and August 2017.
The brutal campaign described by the UN as ethnic cleansing forced Some 740,000 Rohingya to flee their homeland since August 2017 and seek refuge in neighboring Bangladesh. There, they are confined to squalid, overcrowded camps and face forced return back to Myanmar.
Last month, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina strongly denounced Myanmar for delays in the repatriation of persecuted Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled violence in the neighboring country about two years ago.
A recent report by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations emergency response team also gave a glowing assessment of Myanmar’s efforts to entice Rohingya refugees back.
The two governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a repatriation deal in November 2017, yet so far virtually no Rohingya have volunteered to return.
According to Press TV, Bangladesh has said it will not force Rohingya to return to Myanmar, where the Muslim minority faced several waves of persecution before the 2017 crackdown which saw widespread murder, rape and arson.
The United Nations has described as "ethnic cleansing" the mass expulsion of the Rohingya.
The Rohingya Muslims, who have lived in Myanmar for generations, are denied citizenship and are branded illegal emigrants from Bangladesh, which likewise denies them citizenship.
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