A senior Bangladesh Cabinet Minister has accused Myanmar of obstructing efforts to repatriate roughly 7,50,000 Rohingya refugees, saying it was unlikely that the displaced Muslims would ever return to their homeland.
Finance minister A.M.A. Muhith said the repatriation deal signed between Myanmar and Bangladesh in November would probably fail despite his government’s official stance that the refugees must eventually go back. “I do not believe the Rohingya can be sent back,” he said late on Tuesday in Dhaka after meeting with a British charity.
“The first reason is that Burma will only take a few and secondly is that the refugees will never return if they fear persecution,” he added, using another name for Myanmar. Mr. Muhith said Myanmar would “take 15 a day when there is one million”, referring to the Rohingya in camps strung along the border.
