"COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Some 3,500 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have been cleared to return home to Myanmar beginning this week, a top official said Monday (Aug 19), nearly two years after a military crackdown sparked their exodus. Some 740,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in August 2017 from a military offensive in Myanmar - joining 200,000 already there - but virtually none have volunteered to return despite the countries signing a repatriation deal. Bangladesh refugee commissioner Mohammad Abul Kalam, however, said he was "optimistic" about a new repatriation process scheduled to start on Thursday. A previous attempt in November 2018 to return 2,260 Rohingya failed after they refused to leave the camp without guarantees for their safety. "Everything is ready ... the land transit point has been prepared," Kalam told reporters after a meeting with Myanmar officials in Cox's Bazar, southeast Bangladesh, where the refugees live in vast camps..."