Human Rights Watch calls for halting repatriation of Rohingya refugees

Human Rights Watch has called on Myanmar and Bangladesh to cancel plans to begin the repatriation of 3,454 Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh camps to Rakhine State.

Human Rights Watch has called on Myanmar and Bangladesh to cancel plans to begin the repatriation of 3,454 Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh camps to Rakhine State.

“Myanmar has not yet dealt with systematic persecution and violence against Rohingyas, so refugees have every reason to fear for their safety if they return,” Meenakshi Ganguly, the organization’s director for South Asia, said in a statement.

“We don’t want to go back to Myanmar, where we didn’t even have funerals for our loved ones, and they ended up in mass graves after they were killed,” Human Rights Watch quoted a refugee as saying.

Dozens of Rohingya refugees staged a demonstration in Bangladesh on Tuesday, demanding return on condition of guarantees for their safety and citizenship.

The current refugee repatriation plan follows an earlier attempt by Myanmar and Bangladesh to repatriate more than 2,000 Rohingya refugees in November 2018, which had failed because the governments of both countries ignored consultation with the United Nations and the refugees themselves. They will be sent back.