Tripartite meeting on Rohingya repatriation set for Jan. 19

17 January 2021
Tripartite meeting on Rohingya repatriation set for Jan. 19
A group of Rohingya refugees onboard in a naval ship as they arrive in Bhashan Char Island, in Noakhali, Bangladesh, 29 December 2020. Photo: EPA

The Bangladeshi foreign minister says officials from Myanmar, Bangladesh and China are due to meet in Dhaka on January 19 to discuss the issue of repatriation of Rohingya refugees, according to media reports.

A secretary-level meeting between Bangladesh and Myanmar, mediated by China, will be held to attempt to make progress with the refugees, many of whom fled from Myanmar in 2017-18 during the Rakhine crisis.

Minister of Foreign Affairs A.K. Abdul Momen told journalists that Myanmar has not cooperated in ironing out issues to do with the return of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees, but Bangladesh is hopeful some headway will made at the upcoming meeting.

He said that China had initially set the date for January 9-10, but postponed it due to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Myanmar.

It is a year since the last tripartite meeting on Rohingya repatriation was held.

A total of 1 million Rohingya live in 34 refugee camps in Bangladesh and 740,000 escaped a brutal crackdown in Rakhine state in 2017.