Myanmar has confirmed that 180,000 Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh since fleeing their homeland are eligible to return, the Bangladeshi government has said.
Friday’s announcement, following talks in Bangkok, offered a possible breakthrough in the long-stalled repatriation process, although many Rohingya refugees say all of them should be allowed to go home.
More than a million Rohingya people have been crammed into camps in southeastern Bangladesh, the world’s largest refugee settlement. Most fled a brutal crackdown by Myanmar’s military in 2017.
About 70,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh last year, many fleeing worsening hunger and violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
The Bangladeshi government’s announcement comes after a meeting between Khalilur Rahman, high representative of Bangladesh’s interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, and Than Swe, Myanmar’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, on the sidelines of the 6th BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok.
The 180,000 names were part of a list of 800,000 Rohingya that Bangladesh submitted to Myanmar in six batches between 2018 and 2020. Myanmar has also indicated that final verification of another 70,000 refugees is pending further review of photographs and identity details.
The statement said Myanmar had pledged to expedite the verification process for the remaining 550,000 names on the original list.
