Myanmar delegation visits Bangladesh second time to discuss refugee issues

A Myanmar delegation recently went to Bangladesh to meet with the Muslim refugees, who fled to the neighbouring country in 2017,  for implanting a plan to accept them in a phase manner.

It’s learnt that the delegation went to Bangladesh on 1 November. Earlier, another delegation went there on 31 October, but no solution could be found.

On 31 October, a 34-member delegation led by U Soe Naing (head of Rakhine State immigration and public force) went to Bangladesh and held a meeting with the heads of 100 refugee families in Teknaf border town, but they could not arrive in any solution. The team returned to Maungdaw same day.

A Maungdaw resident revealed that another 26-member delegation went there again on 1  November in the morning hours and met the refugees.

"I don't believe they could make some pragmatic decisions to resolve the matter. I heard that they only checked the list of refugees there and return back by 4 pm," he added.

The first delegation was divided into two groups, where one group verified the list of 60 refugee families and the other met with heads of 100 Muslim refugee families to discuss the repatriation process.

The Muslim refugees are understandably demanding that they should be recognized as citizens of  Myanmar and accommodated in their original villages. They also demand to return their land and other properties along with the freedom to move across Myanmar.

In 2017, after the ARSA rebel group attacked many Burmese border guards, the conflicts took place in Rakhine State, where hundreds of thousands of Muslims fled to Bangladesh due to the clearance operation by the Burmese army personnel.

Last year, the Bangladesh government in Dhaka sent a list of over 800,000 Muslim refugees to Nay Pyi Taw. Out of them  101,000 individuals were verified and agreed to receive by the Myanmar authorities.

Currently,  more than one million Muslim refugees are living in 33 refugee camps of Teknaff and Okhia towns in Cox’s Bazar locality of Bangladesh. The Bangla government asserted that not a single refugee had returned to Myanmar in the last six years.