TEKNAF (Bangladesh): Rohingya refugees who visited Myanmar on Friday said they would not voluntarily agree to return there, after touring facilities meant to accommodate the repatriation of the stateless minority to their homeland.

Bangladesh is home to about a million Rohingya, most of whom fled a 2017 military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar that is now subject to a UN genocide investigation.

Both countries signed a repatriation agreement to return them later that year, but little progress has been made since, and the United Nations has repeatedly warned conditions were not right for their return.

Several Bangladeshi officials accompanied 20 Rohingya refugees during Friday’s visit to two model village resettlement camps erected for the pilot return project.

“We have seen the camps… But they don’t accept our citizenship demands,” Mohammad Salim, a Rohingya member of the delegation, said.

“We will not go to the camps,” he added. “We must return to our own land.

‘‘We didn’t like it there. We won’t go. We will return if our safe repatriation and demands are accepted.“

A woman member of the delegation said she was worried about her safety in the newly built facilities, which include a market, hospital and reception centre for returning refugees.

“Nothing is safe for us there. They can subjugate and torture us again,” she said on condition of anonymity.

Bangladesh refugee commissioner Miza­nur Rahman, who accompanied the delegation, nonetheless said that his country wanted the repatriation scheme to go ahead.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2023