Bangladesh has not yet held any discussions with Myanmar on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees, state minister for foreign affairs Shama Obaed Islam said on Thursday, a day after Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim claimed that Myanmar had agreed to take back 300,000 Rohingya from Bangladesh.
Shama reiterated that the repatriation of the Rohingya remained Bangladesh’s top priority.
‘If this happens, we will certainly welcome it. It would be very good news. But at this moment, there is nothing definite,’ she added.
According to Malaysian daily The Star, Anwar Ibrahim said on July 29 that Myanmar had agreed to receive 300,000 Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh and 5,000 from Malaysia as part of a broader repatriation effort.
Addressing local residents in Chennah, Anwar said previous attempts to return Rohingya refugees had failed because Myanmar had refused to receive them.
‘People say, “Send them back.” But where do we send them? Previously, Myanmar did not want to receive them. So we had to place them in designated locations,” the Malaysian prime minister said.
Bangladesh has long been seeking the voluntary, safe and dignified repatriation of more than one million Rohingya refugees who fled persecution in Myanmar and are now living in camps in Cox’s Bazar.
During the sixth BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok in April 2025, the interim government, led by Professor Muhammad Yunus, announced that Myanmar had identified 180,000 Rohingya from a list of 800,000 submitted by Bangladesh as eligible for repatriation.
The information was conveyed by Myanmar’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister Than Swe to Khalilur Rahman, then high representative to the chief adviser, on the sidelines of the summit.
Myanmar also assured Bangladesh that verification of the remaining 550,000 Rohingya on the original list would be completed expeditiously.
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