Bangladesh Friday handed over a list of more than 8,000 Rohingya to Myanmar as it moves to kick-start their repatriation weeks after the process was halted due to lack of preparation. Dhaka's home minister Asaduzzaman Khan formally gave the list to his Myanmar counterpart Lieutenant General Kyaw Swe after officials of the two nations held a meeting in the Bangladeshi capital.
"We've today handed over a list of 8,032 people from 1,673 families to them. The (Myanmar) delegation received it very cordially and told us they would start processing their repatriation," Khan told reporters. Bangladesh reached a deal with Myanmar late last year to repatriate nearly 700,000 Rohingya who have fled across the border since August to escape a brutal military crackdown.
That was meant to start last month, but was delayed by a lack of preparation and protests by Rohingya refugees, most of whom say they do not wish to return without guarantees of safety. Khan said more than one million Rohingya now live in squalid camps in Bangladesh's southeast and Dhaka hoped all of them would be repatriated to Myanmar.
"We discussed how would they repatriate these people. The Myanmar delegation was very cordial about it and said they will take them back gradually," he said. Bangladesh's refugee commissioner Abul Kalam told AFP Dhaka had already started construction of a transit camp and would start building another next week to facilitate the return of the Rohingya.
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