Myanmar signals return for 300,000 Rohingyas 

BANGKOK, Aug 15: Myanmar on Saturday said it was willing to accept around 300,000 Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh, provided they are verified former residents of Rakhine State and security conditions improve.

The announcement came as the Rohingya refugee crisis entered its ninth year following the 2017 military crackdown that forced nearly 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.

They joined hundreds of thousands of Rohingya already living in Bangladesh after earlier waves of violence against the Muslim minority. Myanmar does not recognise the Rohingya as one of its 135 official ethnic minorities and instead calls them Bengalis, implying they are migrants from Bangladesh.

The scale of the 2017 military campaign prompted widespread accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing from the international community, including the UN.

According to Myanmar’s foreign ministry, authorities had processed a list of 828,824 refugees provided by Bangladesh by the end of July. Of the 426,545 people verified, 308,797 were established as former residents of Rakhine.

The ministry said 113,507 people could not be verified, while 4,241 had been involved in what it described as terrorist activities.

Myanmar said it would continue working with Bangladesh to receive verified former residents once the security situation in Rakhine stabilises.

It also disputed claims that more than one million people had been displaced from Rakhine, saying more than 540,000 crossed into Bangladesh after the 2017 violence, while more than 200,000 remained in northern Rakhine.

Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed on a two-year repatriation framework in 2018, but the process stalled following the 2021 military takeover, which ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government and triggered widespread armed resistance.

Renewed fighting between the military and the Rakhine-based Arakan Army since 2023 has caused further displacement. The Arakan Army now controls much of Rakhine after seizing large areas.

Meanwhile, worsening camp conditions, cuts in international humanitarian aid and the lack of safe prospects for return have driven many Rohingya to undertake dangerous sea journeys to Malaysia and Indonesia.

In July, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Myanmar had agreed to accept 5,000 Rohingya refugees living in Malaysia under a return initiative.�"AP