Bangladesh sends back 288 Myanmar soldiers in 2nd phase

DHAKA, Bangladesh

Bangladesh on Thursday returned 288 Myanmar soldiers who crossed the border to take refuge in the neighboring country amid a conflict in the junta-ruled country, an official said.

Bangladesh handed over the security personnel to a Myanmar delegation who arrived in southeastern Cox’s Bazar district on Wednesday, Mia Mohammad Mainul Kabir, a senior Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry official, told Anadolu.

This was the second batch of members of Myanmar security forces to be sent back home. Some 330 members of Myanmar security forces – including border police, soldiers, customs officers, other government officials and their family members – were returned in February.

On Wednesday, the five-member Myanmar delegation also brought back 173 Bangladeshis who completed different jail terms in Myanmar.

Myanmar border police began fleeing to Bangladesh this February as a conflict escalated between junta forces and the Arakan Army and other insurgent groups in the Southeast Asian nation.

This conflict also pushed persecuted Rohingya Muslims to try to cross into Bangladesh’s Cox's Bazar district, where some 1.2 million Rohingya are already living since fleeing a crackdown by Myanmar's security forces in August 2017.