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The Daily Star Jan 13,
2000
Fresh more to speed up Rohingya
repatriation
By Reaz Ahmad
Bangladesh and Myanmar officials will meet in Yangon
tomorrow to expedite repatriation of Rohingya refugees.
The first official level talks on the refugee issue since February 1997 are expected to clear all obstacles to speedy repatriation of Rohingyas from Bangladesh.
The talks are taking place at a time when high birth rate in refugee camps has almost surpassed the rate of repatriation, official sources said.
Relief Secretary Azad Ruhul Amin will lead the seven-member Bangladesh delegation which include senior officials from home and foreign ministries. A deputy minister in charge of immigration will lead the Myanmar side.
Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, Amin said that Bangladesh was hopeful of raising the number of refugees to be repatriated in each batch.
At present, hardly 50 go back per week. Some 21,000 Rohingyas living in two refugee camps - Nayapara and Kutupalong - in Cox's Bazar are part of around 2,50,000 who had fled their homes in Arakan state of Myanmar to escape persecution by the military junta in 1991.
Myanmar suddenly stopped the repatriation process in July 1997 after the return of refugees. Later, it agreed to take back 7,000 more - 50 in a batch per week - from November 1998. In the following six months, only 378 Rohingyas returned home in 18 batches. Officials in Dhaka and sources in the office of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) pointed out that the repatriation process gradually slowed down over the months. The last bilateral talks at foreign ministers level in Dhaka ended inconclusively in July 1999 with the Myanmar minister failing to give a time frame for completion of repatriation. Foreign Minister Abdus Samad Azad visited Myanmar late in 1998 while his counterpart U Aung Win paid a return visit in July last year. In their meetings, Myanmar agreed to take back all its nationals. Earlier in the late 70s, there was another influx of Rohingyas into Bangladesh and the problem was solved through discussions. Since 1992, World Food Programme (WFP) provided food worth over 50 million US dollars for the refugees. UNHCR sought funds from the international community several times to run the camps.
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