Myanmar identifies 180,000 Rohingya in Bangladesh as 'eligible' for repatriation

ISTANBUL

Myanmar has identified 180,000 members of Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh as "eligible" for repatriation, the interim government leader said on Friday.

“Myanmar authorities have confirmed to Bangladesh that out of a list of 800,000 Rohingyas sheltered in Bangladesh, they have identified 180,000 Rohingyas eligible for return to Myanmar,” said Muhammad Yunus, head of the Bangladesh interim government.

Bangladesh is hosting over 1.3 million Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, who fled a Myanmar crackdown in 2017.

Yunus made the statement on X during his trip to Thailand, where he attended the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit in Bangkok.

Burmese military coup leader Min Aung Hlaing also attended the summit.

The number of identified Rohingya members "eligible" for return was disclosed on Friday to Yunus' advisor Khalilur Rahman by U Than Shew, the foreign minister of Myanmar, in Bangkok.

Myanmar authorities have informed that the "verification of the remaining 550,000 Rohingya on the original list will be undertaken on an expeditious basis," according to Yunus' office.

Last November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor sought an arrest warrant against Min Aung for the brutal 2017 crackdown that forced approximately 750,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh to avoid what rights groups have described as genocide by the Myanmar military.

Rohingya are natives of the Rakhine state in Myanmar, but successive regimes in the Buddhist-majority Southeast Asian nation have denied them the nation's citizenship among other rights.

*Najmus Sakib contributed to the report from Dhaka