A CAMP to house Rohingya Muslim and Hindu refugees who return from Bangladesh to Myanmar will be ready by its promised deadline next week.
More than 650,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh since Myanmar’s military launched a brutal crackdown in August following attacks on police posts by a militant group.
Though Myanmar’s army claimed it was a clearance operation against the terrorists, the United Nations have said the operations were “ethnic cleansing” to remove the Rohingya from the country.
Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement in November to repatriate Rohingya and set up a working group last month to oversee the repatriation of people who had fled violence in the northern part of Rakhine state in the west of Myanmar.
Myanmar will host a one-day meeting on Monday with Bangladesh officials in the capital Naypyitaw to discuss the logistics of how many Rohingya will be allowed into Myanmar and how they will be scrutinised to be placed in the camps. Officials plan to start the repatriation process from January 23.
The UN refugee agency said it is not involved in the process but is willing to play a “constructive role” if allowed,
The 124-acre Hla Po Khaung camp will accommodate about 30,000 people in 625 buildings, with at least 100 buildings to be completed by the end of the month.
It would be the first camp built in the repatriation process.
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