Myanmar and neighboring Bangladesh have completed an agreement to repatriate scores of Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar to escape a brutal military crackdown.
Bangladesh issued a statement Tuesday saying the repatriations will begin next week, with the goal of completing the process within the next two years.
Dhaka says the repatriation process will give priority to "family units" and orphans and "children born out of unwarranted incidence" — a reference to children conceived by rape. The agreement calls for Bangladesh to set up five transit camps that will move the refugees into two reception areas in Myanmar's Rakhine state.
About 650,000 Rohingyas have fled into Bangladesh since last August, when Myanmar forces launched a scorched earth campaign against Rohingya villages in Rakhine state in response to attacks on Myanmar police outposts by Rohingya militants.
The refugees, living in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district, have told human rights organizations of numerous atrocities committed by security forces, including the burning down of homes and entire villages, random shootings and rapes.
The United Nations has described the reported actions carried out by Myanmar forces as "a textbook case of ethnic cleansing." Myanmar dismisses the stories as exaggerated, and the army has cleared itself of any abuses.
Humanitarian groups say the children living in the overcrowded camps are suffering a host of illnesses, including anemia, diarrhea, diphtheria and cholera, due to malnutrition and poor sanitary conditions.
The Rohingya minority has been denied citizenship and other rights in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Myanmar views the Rohingya as immigrants from Bangladesh, despite the fact that many families have lived in Myanmar for generations.
Read More Myanmar, Bangladesh to Begin Return of Rohingya Refugees : http://ift.tt/2mJysky
No comments:
Post a Comment