Narinjara News, 16 March 2023

A 22-member delegation from Myanmar has arrived at Teknaf township of Cox's Bazar in south Bangladesh toobserve the preparation for repatriationof Rohingyas, said a report in Dhaka Tribune.

The visit followed after a group of envoys to Myanmar including the embassy heads and diplomats of ASEANcountries along with China, India andBangladesh paid a visit to some repatriation camps in Maungdaw township of Burma.

On 8 March, the group of diplomats visited the Rakhine region to assess the ground situation before theRohingyas return back to Arakan State.

The Myanmar delegation arrived at Teknaf jetty ghat by a speed motorboat through Naf river onWednesday morning from Maungdaw township.

The officials from Refugee Relief and Repatriation Office as well as BGB & law enforcement personnelwelcomed the team.

Refugee relief and repatriation commissioner Mohammed Mizanur Rahman informed that the delegation would meetwith the concerned officials andexchange views with some Rohingyas as well.

The delegation will also verify the list of Rohingyas willing to return to Myanmar. They are supposed tovisit some Rohingya camps also,reported Dhaka Tribune quoting Rahman.

Over 1,000 Rohingya can be taken back under the family-based repatriation process. It includeshundreds of Hindus too.

Bangladesh government in Dhaka recently handed over a list of more than 1,000 refugees to the Myanmarauthorities to verify it forproceeding under a repatriation pilot project.

Both the neighbouring countries have been working to start thepilot projectfor the long-awaited Rohingya repatriation initiative before the rainy days begin. Myanmargovernment agencies have been verifying thelist of refugees.

A list of 862,000 MyanmarMuslim refugees was previously sent to Myanmar, following which the Myanmar authorities agreed totake back about 70,000 individuals.

Bangladesh, which hosts over one million Rohingya refugees after they fled a brutal crackdown in Rakhine State by the Burmesemilitary personnel in 2017, haslong been urging the internationalcommunity to pressurizeMyanmar to speed up the repatriation process.