Rohingya remain in limbo after repatriation plans stall
Elections in Bangladesh mean action will be delayed until 2019, says refugee official
Bangladesh’s plans to tackle the Rohingya refugee crisis have been stalled until 2019, with repatriation and relocation programmes only likely to be revisited following year end general elections, a top Bangladeshi official said on Sunday. Abul Kalam, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner, told Reuters “a new course of action” needs to be adopted on repatriation that takes into account refugees’ key demands. More than 720,000 Rohingya fled a sweeping army crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017, according to UN agencies. The crackdown was launched in response to insurgent Rohingya attacks on security forces. Rohingya refugees say soldiers and Buddhist civilians killed families, burned many villages and carried out gang rapes. UN-mandated investigators have accused Myanmar’s army of “genocidal intent” and ethnic cleansing. Myanmar has denied almost all the accusations, saying its forces engaged in a counterinsurgency operation against “terrorists”. In late Oc...
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