DHAKA: Myanmar will take back 2,000 Rohingya Muslims from Bangladesh next month which will be followed by a second batch, a top official said a day after the two countries held talks here on repatriation of over 700,000 displaced refugees who fled to the neighboring country following a military crackdown.
A group of 12 Myanmar officials, including foreign secretary Myint Thu, visited the crammed Rohingya camps in Bangladesh’s southeastern Cox’s Bazar where they met the minority community leaders in the largest makeshift camp at Kutupalang in an effort to start the reparation process.
The visit followed after Myanmar and Bangladesh reached a deal on the repatriation in line with an earlier agreed modality. Bangladeshi officials said they had provided Myanmar a list of 32,000 Rohingyas in two phases, while Myanmar said they had verified 5,000 of them.
According to media reports, Myanmar has suggested they could take back 2,000 refugees initially. “From that 5,000, the first batch will be about 2,000 people. And then a second batch will follow. So in mid-November we will receive the first batch,” Thu told reporters. PTI
