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Reuters
DHAKA
The United Nations’ refugee agency and Bangladesh authorities on Tuesday started to consult more than 3,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to determine if any want to return home, officials said, as a fresh repatriation bid was launched.
More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine for neighbouring Bangladesh after a military-led crackdown in August 2017 the United Nations has said was perpetrated with “genocidal intent”, but many refugees refuse to go back, fearing more violence. Myanmar cleared 3,450 people to return, from a list of more than 22,000 provided by Bangladesh, authorities said. “The intentions surveys are beginning today,” Louise Donovan, a UNHCR spokeswoman in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh, said.
“Together, the government of Bangladesh and UNHCR will ask these refugees to come forward and discuss the option of repatriation.” The agency will hold a second confidential interview with those who express a wish to return, she added, to discuss their intentions, and ensure the decision is voluntary.
DHAKA
The United Nations’ refugee agency and Bangladesh authorities on Tuesday started to consult more than 3,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to determine if any want to return home, officials said, as a fresh repatriation bid was launched.
More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine for neighbouring Bangladesh after a military-led crackdown in August 2017 the United Nations has said was perpetrated with “genocidal intent”, but many refugees refuse to go back, fearing more violence. Myanmar cleared 3,450 people to return, from a list of more than 22,000 provided by Bangladesh, authorities said. “The intentions surveys are beginning today,” Louise Donovan, a UNHCR spokeswoman in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh, said.
“Together, the government of Bangladesh and UNHCR will ask these refugees to come forward and discuss the option of repatriation.” The agency will hold a second confidential interview with those who express a wish to return, she added, to discuss their intentions, and ensure the decision is voluntary.
