Myanmar has formally informed Bangladesh on Sunday that they were ready to receive the first of batch of repatriated Rohingyas on Nov 15.
“We have received their consent today (Monday) that the repatriation will begin on Nov 15,” a foreign ministry official told Bangla Tribune on condition of anonymity.
The Myanmar ambassador in Dhaka U Lwin Oo met the foreign ministry’s Southeast Asia wing’s Director General Delowar Hossain in the afternoon after a note verbale on its consent was handed over.
“Myanmar is ready to take back Rohingyas on Nov 15”, the envoy told the media after the meeting.
Myanmar officials in Yangon said on Sunday the country was ready to receive the 2,260 Rohingya on Thursday (Nov 15), Reuters reported.
Bangladesh and Myanmar struck a deal last month to repatriate 5,000 Rohingyas. The more than 2,000 set to be sent back on Nov 15 is the first group.
On Oct 30, after the third meeting of the joint working group, Bangladesh and Myanmar came up with a specific time to start repatriating Rohingyas living in Cox’s Bazar camps.
The working group was formed in November 2017, when the countries signed a deal following the exodus of Rohingyas into Bangladesh.
Now over a million Myanmar nationals are living in Bangladesh.
Myanmar's Minister for Social Welfare and Resettlement Win Myat Aye told a news conference in Yangon on Sunday that preparations had been made for 2,251 people to be transported to two transit centres by boat on Thursday (Nov 15), while the second group of 2,095 could follow later by road, Reuters reported.
Once processed by the authorities, they would be sent to another centre where they would be housed, fed, and asked to build homes through cash-for-work schemes.
Returnees would only be allowed to travel within Maungdaw township, one of the three they fled, and only if they accepted National Verification Cards, an identity document most Rohingya reject because they say it brands them as foreigners.
Many Rohingyas, the majority of whom have been left stateless after decades of persecution, oppose going back without guarantees of citizenship and freedom of movement.