Bangladesh sends back 288 Myanmar security personnel

They had fled across the border to Bangladesh amid heavy fighting between the Myanmar military and rebel insurgents in Rakhine

Bangladesh has sent 288 Myanmar military and Border Guard Police personnel who fled across the border amid fighting with armed insurgents back to their home country.

At 7am on Thursday, they boarded a tugboat at the BIWTA jetty in Cox’s Bazar’s Nuniachhara under strict security. The boat took them to the deep sea, where they were transferred to the waiting Myanmar Navy vessel Chin Dwin, according to Cox’s Bazar Additional District Executive Magistrate Md Yamin Hossian.

Myanmar had sent the vessel to the Bangladesh sea border on Wednesday, bringing 173 Bangladeshis jailed or detained in the country back home.

The Myanmar Navy vessel also carried a five-member delegation from the country who went to Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday afternoon. The delegation then headed to a government primary school in Bandarban’s Naikhongchhari where the BGB Battalion-11 was holding the Myanmar security personnel. After inspecting the detained personnel, they completed a number of formalities.

The BGB and local administration officials say that the Myanmar security personnel were taken to the Cox’s Bazar jetty around 4:30am on Thursday.

Immigration and documentation formalities were completed before the repatriation process began. Senior officials from the Home Ministry, the BGB, the district administration, the police, the local health authority, and the Coast Guard officially transferred the returnees to the Myanmar delegation, which included the ambassador to Dhaka.

The Myanmar security personnel then boarded the tugboat and were escorted out to the deep sea by a Coast Guard trawler.

There has been extensive armed conflict between the Myanmar military junta and rebel groups in border areas, some of which have spilled into Bangladesh. Mortar shells and bullets from across the border have led to several casualties.

Previously, on Feb 15, the government repatriated a total of 330 individuals, including members of Myanmar's border guards and armed forces, who had fled the ongoing conflict in Rakhine state.