Myanmar clears list of 8,000 Rohingyas for return

Myanmar government has cleared the list of 8,000 Rohingyas sent by Bangladesh for verification following the last year’s deal over repatriation of forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali revealed the information at press briefing on Monday. The foreign ministry held the briefing to discuss Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s upcoming Saudi Arabia visit.

The Myanmar government team led by its foreign secretary will come to Bangladesh at the end of this month for a joint working group meeting in Dhaka, Ali said.

“There is nothing new, it’s ongoing,” he said, reports bdnews24.com.

The foreign minister said Myanmar had already cleared the list of 8,000 Rohingyas and Bangladesh is matching their villages of origin.

“Now the effort will be to build housing in those villages in Myanmar so that they can live there once they return,” he said, adding that India is helping Myanmar in building houses.

He said he had also requested China to help build houses, particularly in Rakhine State’s Maungdaw, where most of the listed Rohingya refugees originated from.

The Myanmar army launched a crackdown on the Rohingyas on August 25 last year, forcing over 700,000 of the ethnic minority to cross the border and take shelter in overcrowded refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.

With this influx the number of Rohingyas living in Bangladesh crossed a million.

The international community is pressing Myanmar to create conditions for a sustainable return of the Rohingyas by giving them citizenship and basic rights.

Bangladesh reached a deal with Myanmar late last year to ensure their return with rights in two years.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan formally handed over the first list of 8,032 people from 1,673 families to his Myanmar counterpart Lieutenant General Kyaw Swe in February after a meeting in Dhaka.