Delegation returns from Myanmar: Officials see progress; Rohingya leaders see punishment

It was an 11-hour trip back in time for the 20 Rohingyas – leaders of different camps in Ukhia-Teknaf – who were making the journey back to Maugdaw District in Myanmar's Rakhine state. 

This was the same place they had escaped a little over six years ago, due to a military crackdown by the Myanmar army. 

The Rohingyas were accompanied by seven Bangladeshi government officials, as part of the delegation to meet the Myanmar side and see the facilities prepared ahead of the first batch of repatriation. 

This included a visit to two model villages erected for the pilot return project.

In total, the 27 had left for Myanmar at around 9:30am this morning. They reached Maungdaw town around 11am, visited some nearby settlements and returned to Bangladesh around 5:30pm.

While officials remarked on the improvements they saw in Rakhine, for some of the Rohingya leaders – comprising 17 men and 3 women – the worries were still present. 

The 27-member delegation returns to Cox's Bazar at 5:30pm after a visit to Myanmar. Photo: TBS

Cox's Bazar-based Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) Mohammad Mizanur Rahman said after the visit that he had seen a lot of improvements in the town and surrounding areas. 

"80% of the population were Rohingyas and they were moving about freely and conducting their trade," he said. 

He said he saw conditions suitable for rehabilitation. 

Abu Sufiyan, one of the Rohingya leaders, felt differently.

Sufiyan found no trace of the village in Myanmar's Maungdaw district he had fled around only six years ago.

Everything had changed, he found while visiting different villages. Where there were once small homesteads, now stood rows of camps. 

"I saw rows of houses made of tin, like those in Bhasan Char. A member of the Myanmar delegation told me that's where the government planned to keep us if we returned," he said. 

Another Rohingya representative, Mohammad Salim, said his Myanmar counterpart had told him that the Rohingyas would not be granted citizenship for the time being, but given a National Verification Card (NVC).  

"We would have to take the cards and stay in the camps. I don't think we will be interested in repatriation under these conditions," he said.

The NVC is an identity card which "effectively identifies Rohingyas as foreigners," according to human rights groups.

Meanwhile, RRRC Mohammad Mizanur Rahman said a team from Myanmar will visit Bangladesh soon and repatriation would be discussed then. 

Before the visit, Mizanur said that the Rohingyas informed him that the village they used to live in wasn't the same anymore. They wanted to return to exactly where they used to live, he added.

In this case, the Myanmar government has said if the Rohingyas want to return to where they lived before they have to show National Verification Cards (NVCs), said the RRRC.

The delegation left for Myanmar from Jaliapara Ghat in Teknaf, Cox's Bazar at around 9:30am on Friday. 

According to RRRC office sources, after the Rohingya influx started on August 25, 2017, in 2018, Bangladesh gave a list of 882,000 Rohingyas to Myanmar for repatriation. 

After going through the list, Myanmar finally sent a list of only 68,000 back to Bangladesh.

Earlier, the first group of Rohingyas was supposed to be taken to Myanmar by 15 November 2018, but this never happened. 

Then in August 2019, another initiative was taken by China to send the Rohingyas back, but they refused as citizenship issues were not resolved. 

This is the third initiative to repatriate the Rohingyas.