Buses standing ready to return refugees to Myanmar but no one is willing to board

Bangladesh has conceded that it will be unable to voluntarily repatriate Rohingya refugees to Myanmar as it had planned because it cannot find anyone willing to go back, though efforts to “motivate” people to leave will continue.

Four trucks and three buses were stationed at Unchiprang camp in Cox’s Bazar on Thursday morning, ready to carry refugees who have been “approved” to a transit camp by the border, but not one refugee was willing to board them. Most refugees on a list of those approved to return have gone into hiding.

Mohammad Abul Kalam, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and rehabilitation commissioner, said his team had completed the “physical and logistical preparations” to facilitate the repatriation but has been forced to accept by Thursday evening local time that the refugees “are not willing to go back now.”

Bangladesh was “totally committed to the principle of non-refoulement and voluntary repatriation”, Abul Kalam said. “We will not force anyone to go back to Myanmar against his or her will,” he added, though authorities would continue to try to “motivate” refugees to leave.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Rohingya girl carries a water jar at the Balukhali camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Photograph: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters

More than 2,000 Rohingya refugees had been put on a list approved by Myanmar for return, without their consent. While the plan was to send them back in batches of 150 per day starting on Thursday, by Wednesday night almost all had gone into hiding in other camps and in the nearby forest, amid fears they would be sent to Myanmar against their will.

Hours before repatriation was due to begin, the UN high commissioner for refugees had located just 50 families listed for repatriation, all of whom said they did not want to return to Myanmar in the current conditions.

Although Abul Kalam acknowledged most Rohingya were still too afraid to return, he insisted: “At least some Rohingya, we believe, are willing to go back to Myanmar now. We are trying to reach them in different camps. We are ready to help them return to Myanmar.”

Play Video 5:56 'They slaughtered our people': Rohingya refugees on Myanmar’s brutal crackdown - video

The few who are reportedly willing to return are 420 Hindus – but Kalam said authorities were focusing on repatriating Rohingya for the time being and would repatriate Hindus at a later stage.

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Mohammad Idris, a Rohingya community leader who was at a meeting at Unchiprang camp on Thursday morning, said all 50 of the families in the camp listed for return had “disappeared from their shacks three or four days ago and the officials have failed to trace them”.

He added: “Since this morning, army and police have surrounded the camp. Refugee and other administrative officials have been holding meetings with the majhis and other Rohingya community leaders seeking their help to persuade the listed refugees to return to Myanmar.”

Rohingya refugees told the Guardian of the multiple ways the Bangladesh authorities were trying to “persuade” refugees to go back, including telling them that it was the only way they would get the Myanmar government to give them rights and citizenship.

They also made direct threats. Saifullah, who lives in Balukhali camp, said the (Camp in Charge) CIC had warned the majhis of “stern actions” if the Rohingya who are in the repatriation list did not return to Myanmar.

“The CIC have been telling Rohingya refugees [they] will face hardship if they do not return to Myanmar,” he said. “They are threatening to stop supplying rations to refugees, saying they will be barred from working with the different NGOs and will not have the freedom to move around freely.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bangladeshi labourers rest before working in the ‘transit camp’ site, set up for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees in Ukhia. Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images

The UN has called on both governments to halt the “rushed” repatriation plans but the pleas appear to have fallen on deaf ears. Bangladesh, however, tried to quell the panic by instructing NGOs that it maintained its commitment to voluntary returns and that all NGOs should continue their work as usual.

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There are more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees living in Cox’s Bazar who fled a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar military in August 2017, which was described by a UN fact-finding mission as genocide. Women were raped, children massacred and thousands killed, while most Rohingya villages in Rakhine state were burned to the ground.

According to the head of the UN fact-finding mission, the genocide in Rakhine against the Muslim minority was ongoing, and there were demonstrations this week among Buddhist Rakhine communities who protested against the return of the Rohingya.

Myanmar has insisted it is ready for returns and laid the blame for any delays at Bangladesh’s door. Officials have stated that refugees from Cox’s Bazar will be processed in one of the two centres built by Bangladesh and then transported to Myanmar either by boat or on land to Hla Phoe Khaung transition camp, in Rakhine state.

The Myanmar government has assured the international community the Rohingya will then be housed in new homes built in Maungdaw, one of the three areas in which the Rohingya had lived before the crackdown, though they will not be allowed to travel outside of the township. Most will also be unable to return to their original homes and villages because they were destroyed by the military.