The head of Bangladesh's refugee commission says plans to start the repatriation of 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar have been scrapped after officials were unable to find anyone who wanted to return.
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The refugees "are not willing to go back now", Refugee Commissioner Abul Kalam told The Associated Press on Thursday, adding that officials "can't force them to go" but will continue to try to "motivate them so it happens".
The announcement came after about 1000 Rohingya demonstrated against returning to Myanmar, from where hundreds of thousands fled army-led violence last year.
At the Unchiprang camp, one of the sprawling refugee settlements near the city of Cox's Bazar, another Bangladeshi refugee official implored the Rohingya to return to their country over a loudspeaker.
"We have arranged everything for you, we have six buses here, we have trucks, we have food. We want to offer everything to you. If you agree to go, we'll take you to the border, to the transit camp," he said.
"We won't go!" hundreds of voices, including children's, chanted in reply.
Bangladesh authorities had attempted to begin the repatriation of the Rohingya despite calls from United Nations officials and human rights groups to hold off. According to a UN-brokered deal with Bangladesh and Myanmar, the Rohingya cannot be forced to repatriate.
The countries had planned to send an initial group of 2251 back from mid-November at a rate of 150 per day.
The huge exodus of Rohingya began in August last year after Myanmar security forces launched a brutal crackdown following attacks by an insurgent group on guard posts. The scale, organisation and ferocity of the operation led to accusations from the international community, including the UN, of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Most people in Buddhist-majority Myanmar do not accept that the Rohingya Muslims are a native ethnic group, viewing them as "Bengalis" who entered illegally from Bangladesh, even though generations of Rohingya have lived in Myanmar. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, as well as access to education and hospitals.
Despite assurances from Myanmar, human rights activists said on Thursday the conditions were not yet safe for Rohingya refugees to go back.
"Nothing the Myanmar government has said or done suggests that the Rohingya will be safe upon return," Human Rights Watch refugee rights director Bill Frelick said in a statement.
The group said 150 people from 30 families were to be transferred to a transit camp on Thursday, but the camp was empty except for security guards.
Australian Associated Press