“”> A Myanmar delegation was scheduled to return to the camps in Cox’s Bazar this May to encourage the Rohingyas to return to Rakhine. After receiving the warning signal of cyclone Mokha, Bangladesh first informed the delegation of Myanmar after the cyclone. Now the delegation is hesitating to visit Myanmar on the pretext of huge damage caused by the cyclone.
Some officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Disaster and Relief said this.
Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Director General of the Department of Public Diplomacy Sehli Sabreen said, “Cyclone Mokha has caused a lot of damage in Myanmar’s Rakhine. So the date of when the delegation of Myanmar will come or when the repatriation will start has not been decided yet.
He told reporters at the ministry’s regular weekly briefing on Thursday that this date will be fixed soon.
Sehli Sabreen said that on May 5, a Bangladesh government delegation and 20 Rohingyas included in the first batch of repatriation visited Maungdoo in Rakhine state in Myanmar. All the complaints mentioned by the Rohingyas after their field visit to Rakhine have already been informed to Myanmar.
He expressed hope that a delegation from Myanmar would visit Bangladesh in May or at a convenient time nearby to discuss with the Rohingyas selected for repatriation.
The Meteorological Department has issued warning signal number 10 in Cox’s Bazar district to avoid the cyclone. This storm hit last Sunday. When asked about the possible visit of the Myanmar delegation, an official of the office of the Commissioner for Refugee Relief and Repatriation from Cox’s Bazar told Ajkar newspaper that Bangladesh wanted to welcome the Myanmar delegation after the storm due to the danger of damage and landslides in the Rohingya camp due to the cyclone.
Now the Ministry of External Affairs will contact Myanmar through diplomatic channels to finalize the date of the return visit of the country’s delegation.
About one million people of Myanmar’s Rohingya community are currently sheltered in various camps in Cox’s Bazar. An agreement was also reached between the two countries in November 2017 to return them to their native land. Two attempts to return them under this agreement failed.
Bangladesh recently agreed to work with Myanmar to return some Rohingyas, at least experimentally, through the mediation of China. However, Bangladeshi officials are not sure when this return will start, or if it will start at all.
It is difficult to trust Myanmar, a senior official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, ‘When will the return start, it will be. There doesn’t seem to be much to do about it other than wait it out.’
