- Foreign delegation tours Taung Pyo Letwe refugee camp near Bangladesh border
MAUNGDAW, MYANMAR: The United Nations on Wednesday called on Myanmar to give aid agencies unhindered access to camps it has built for tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees before they can return after fleeing Myanmar military operations last year.
An international delegation advising Myanmar toured the Taung Pyo Letwe refugee camp outside the town of Maungdaw near the Bangladesh border. Video of the camp shows long, plywood houses set on a rocky field and surrounded by a wire mesh fence topped with barbed wire.
On Tuesday, Bangladesh delayed the repatriation of the largely stateless Rohingya to Myanmar as the process of compiling and verifying the list of people to be sent back was incomplete. But the UN said that necessary safeguards for the refugees were still missing.
“Until the safety and wellbeing of any child returning to Myanmar can be guaranteed, talk of repatriation is premature,” UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth said in a statement. The UN refugee agency said that earlier there were continued restrictions on access for aid agencies, the media and other independent observers in Myanmar.
The UNHCR called on Myanmar to allow the necessary unhindered humanitarian access in Rakhine State and create conditions for a genuine and lasting solution. More than 688,000 Muslim Rohingya and a few hundred Hindu Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Aug 25 last year after the Myanmar military cracked down in the northern part of Rakhine state, amid witness reports of killings, looting and rape, in response to militant attacks on security forces.
Many in Myanmar regard the Rohingya community as ‘illegal’ immigrants from Bangladesh. The United Nations described Myanmar’s crackdown as ethnic cleansing, which Myanmar denies. On Tuesday, Myanmar officials told a news conference that Bangladesh was not ready to send back the refugees as scheduled because the potential returnees hadn’t completed the forms Myanmar provided attesting to their former residence in Myanmar.
“They also have to check with the UNHCR about whether it’s voluntary,” Minister of International Cooperation Kyaw Tin told the news conference. “They need a lot of time to fill out the forms and to determine if they really want to come back.” A Bangladesh official who participated in the talks with Myanmar said that the UNHCR would be involved in the process to ensure the repatriations would be voluntary.
“They (UNHCR) are already working with us…We want to make sure that the return is safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable,” said the official, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to media. He said that Bangladesh was working towards signing a memorandum of understanding with the UN agency for the repatriation and it could take at least two months to start the return.
In Bangladesh, a UNHCR spokesperson said that the agency had not been involved in the bilateral discussions on repatriations or signed any agreements. “We would like to be part of the process and discussions to ensure the reparations are voluntary, safe and sustainable and that any returns are in line with international standards,” said Caroline Gluck, UNHCR’s senior public information officer, in Cox’s Bazar.
Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed earlier this month to complete a voluntary repatriation of the refugees in two years. Myanmar says it has set up two reception centers and the temporary Taung Pyo Letwe camp to receive the first arrivals. The plan has sparked fears in refugee camps in Bangladesh that people may be forced to return despite a lack of guarantees around their security.
“Myanmar is just getting ready by itself, but we are not going unless there are promises made for us,” said Ko Ko Lin, a member of Arakan Rohingya National Organisation. The two countries have agreed to a two-year repatriation process that was set to begin Tuesday. But officials in Bangladesh said a number of issues remained unresolved, in particular worries that refugees were being forced to return.
In the sprawling camps that cover the hills south of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, along the border with Myanmar, many Rohingya say they’ll only to return to their obliterated villages if there’s strong outside monitoring of their safety and living conditions. “How can we go back to Myanmar without anyone guaranteeing our security,” said Alam, a Rohingya in the Bulakhali refugee camp in Bangladesh, who, like many Rohingya, goes only by one name.
“If we would be given homes in our villages that were burned, then we will go back.” More than 680,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh to escape a crackdown by Myanmar’s military that began following attacks by a Rohingya militant group on Aug. 25. The United Nations and the United States have described the crackdown as ethnic cleansing. The UN human rights chief has also suggested that it may be genocide.
