MYANMAR’S claim, as New Age reported on August 16, that only 540,000 Rohingyas had fled violence in Rakhine State into Bangladesh in 2016–2017 appears nothing but a ploy to delay any likely repatriation of the Rohingyas who have lived here since then. Naypyidaw has dismissed Dhaka’s figure that more than a million Rohingyas having lived in Bangladesh as being ‘inaccurate’. Myanmar’s foreign ministry, in the claim made on August 15, has not also referred to the people who fled to Bangladesh as the Rohingyas. Myanmar’s statement names them as ‘Bengalis’ and has said that more than 740,000 of them had lived in Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships in Rakhine before the ‘Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacks,’ noting that more than 200,000 of them still remained in the areas whilst more than 540,000 fled to Bangladesh. In the wake of several such attempts by Myanmar to delay, confuse or frustrate any efforts to repatriate the Rohingyas, this appears to be one more such attempt. Myanmar has earlier created a fearful situation in Rakhine and deflected bilateral or multilateral efforts for the sustainable repatriation of the Rohingyas that could be voluntary, dignified and safe.
Dhaka has rightly rejected Naypyidaw’s claim and noted that Bangladesh has provided Myanmar with detailed information on the Rohingyas living in Bangladesh since the 2017 influx. Myanmar has said that Bangladesh submitted a list of 828,824 Rohingyas living in Bangladesh, noting that Myanmar has verified 426,545 of them as of July and said that 308,707 of them were former residents of Rakhine, 4,241 of them were involved in ‘terrorist activities’ and information on 113,507 could not be verified. Dhaka has again rightly questioned the reliability and completeness of Myanmar’s verification process, noting that Naypyidaw may have relied on household data that could be outdated, allowing discrepancies to creep into the verification process. Besides, children born to Rohingya parents in Bangladesh camps would not appear in Myanmar’s population records. The Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, which looks after relief for and repatriation of the Rohingyas, says that the Rohingya population in Bangladesh has now grown to more than 1.2 million. The UN agencies involved in Rohingya issues also have ample documentation on the number of the Rohingyas in Bangladesh. Naypyidaw also seeks to say that repatriation is a matter involving Bangladesh and Myanmar and resented Dhaka’s ‘portraying’ the issue as an international matter. But bilateral, and even regional, efforts have failed to send a single Rohingya back home to Rakhine State since then.
Dhaka should, therefore, step up its efforts, bilaterally, regionally and internationally, to make the repatriation of the Rohingyas a reality, without being deterred by Naypyidaw’s ploys.
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