‘Not the good time’ for Rohingya repatriation to Myanmar, says UN coordinator in Bangladesh

The Myanmar military junta is fighting armed rebels in Rakhine and other parts of the country

Now is not the time conducive to repatriating the Rohingya refugees to their homeland Myanmar, where the military junta is fighting armed rebels, believes Gwyn Lewis, the UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh.

She talked about the insecurity in Myanmar at the moment in a meeting with Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud in Dhaka on Sunday.

They also discussed the fact that “it’s incredibly tense and because more displacement and the country’s security is really, really difficult”, she said after the meeting.

“And the minister reassured me again that Bangladesh is only discussing the repatriation that is safe and dignified,” Lewis said.

Myanmar denies citizens’ rights to the Rohingya. A brutal military crackdown in August 2017 drove more than 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, where another 400,000 members of the ethnic minority had already taken refuge to escape decades of persecution by the Myanmar authorities.

Bilateral initiatives to send back the Rohingya after the 2017 exodus have failed, but Bangladesh hoped China-mediated efforts that began just before the military takeover in 2021 might become fruitful.

The process saw some progress in 2023 but the intense fighting between the army and the rebels has made it difficult.

The Rohingya also refuse to go back to Myanmar without citizenship.

“I explained to the minister that we are doing what we can in Myanmar to provide humanitarian support but the situation is very difficult. So it is not the good time for repatriation,” Lewis said.

“But it’s something that obviously is the priority for the Rohingya, the priority for the government and we will continue to work in that direction,” she added.

As the UN official expressed concern about the humanitarian situation of the Rohingya, the minister committed to help the UN fundraise with the new joint response plan expected to be launched in Geneva in coming weeks.

“We have a shortage of financing for basic services, food and it is a continuing concern,” Lewis said.