Shawdesh Desk:

Bangladesh authorities on Thursday said that none of the Rohingya families interviewed so far were willing to go back to Myanmar.

Briefing journalists at a Rohingya camp in Teknaf, Abul Kalam Azad, the refugee relief and repatriation commissioner confirmed that no Rohingya families were willing to go back on Thursday.

‘Till now the families interviewed we did not get anyone willing to go back,’ he said.

Both Bangladesh and Myanmar were ready on Thursday to begin the repatriation process of Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh in their bid to escape milalitary persecution in Myanmar a couple of years ago.

They also arranged buses and trucks to carry people and their goods on Thursday, but no one turned up to go back to Myanmar.

The buses waiting to carry the Rohingyas  to Gum Dhum border point from Shalbagan and Nayapara camp left sharply at 4:00pm.

Another initiative for repatriation taken in November last year also failed.

Abul Kalam Azad, who heads a government body that oversees the Rohingya camps, said they interviewed 295 families in the latest bid for the repatriation.

‘This process will continue until we completed the interview of 1037 families, who Myanmar recognised as their residence and agreed to take them back,’ he said.

He refused to call the latest unsuccessful move as Bangladesh’s failure.

‘There is no scope of saying itas Bangladesh’s failure because this is not our problem. This is a problem between Myanmar and this population group. We are not a direct party to this,’ he said.

Zheng Tianzhuo, director of political division of the Chinese embassy in Dhaka, who was present during the repatriation move, said he believed that the visit of Myanmar permanent secretary from the ministry of foreign affairs last month was an intent showed by their government.

‘I think it’s like a ball game, there should be someone to tees off kicks off, otherwise, the game cannot be started … maybe a good team never argues before the game about what kind of strategy is the best during the match,’ he said.

Rohingya leader Hafez Shahidullah said they will not go back until they were given citizenship, their safety is ensured and they are taken to their original land.

He also demanded Myanmar to disband its camps for Internally Displaced People and compensation for their loss of properties.

The UNHCR and the government jointly continued assessing voluntariness for return of the Rohingya people.

More than 7,00,000 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh after fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by the Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing and genocide, beginning from August 25, 2017.