Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh announced on Saturday that they would refuse to return to Myanmar unless their eventual repatriation ensured security and guaranteed citizenship rights. The statement came after a group of twenty Rohingya refugees were allowed to visit Rakhine State for the first time since they fled to Bangladesh following a military-led crackdown in 2017.
Nearly one million Rohingya Muslims currently live in camps in the Bangladeshi border district of Cox’s Bazar, having escaped persecution in the Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Bangladeshi officials have made multiple visits to Myanmar to discuss the repatriation of the refugees, and the recent visit by Rohingya refugees to Rakhine State was intended to build confidence in the resettlement process.
The group of Rohingya, accompanied by seven Bangladeshi officials, visited Maungdaw Township and nearby villages in…
