Rohingya rejects Myanmar’s repatriation claim

The Rohingyas have rejected the claim made by the Myanmar government regarding the repatriation of the first batch of the Rohingya community residing in the country.

"This is a deception," Al Jazeera quoted a Europe-based website named Rohingya Blogger acting as the watchdog of Rohingya rights, as saying.

The Myanmar government took to its Facebook account to announce that a family of five had returned to the country from the border area between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

As part of the ethnic cleansing, around 70,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh since Myanmar's military brutally cracked down upon the Rohingya settlement in Rakhine in 2017, a claim refuted by Myanmar.

Further, the Myanmar government referred to the expatriated family as Muslim and refused to consider them as an ethnic group.

No information was given regarding the number of Rohingya families to be expatriated.

The Rohingya Blogger website described the Myanmar government's announcement as "fake event" to lure the Rohingyas refugees to return back to the camps in Myanmar.

As reported by the Guardian, Myanmar government stated that immigration authorities provided the expatriated family with national verification cards, a form of ID that falls short of citizenship and has been rejected by Rohingya leaders who want full rights.

Further, the family was also provided with dry food, utensils, blankets and mosquito nets.

The move comes despite warnings from the United Nations and other rights groups that a mass repatriation of Rohingya would be premature.

A UN official had also said that the conditions in Myanmar are not conducive to the return of Rohingya refugees. 

Source: Asian News International