The government of Myanmar iterated on Saturday its readiness to receive the Rohingya refugees sheltered in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar.
Over 625,000 Rohingya refugees have fled the unrest in Rakhine state since late August to take shelter in Bangladesh.
According to a report in the Mizzima, Union Enterprise of Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development (UEHRD) for Rakhine State Vice-Chairman Dr. Win Myat Aye said the Myanmar government is ready to receive those who return after fleeing to Bangladesh due to unrest in northern Rakhine State, to allow them to resettle in Myanmar safely again.
Dr. Win Myat Aye said the work to receive those who are repatriating from Bangladesh would start in the last week of January and this work would be done at a fast pace in accordance with the Myanmar-Bangladesh agreement. They will be rehabilitated in Ngakhura and Taungpyoletwe camps.
He said that all necessary measures have been made for providing them shelter, food and employment.
Dr. Win Myat Aye told Mizzima: “We need to only create job opportunities and arrange for their livelihood. This place is fertile land and good for their livelihood so that they will be okay when they come back to the places close to their old habitats where they will be resettled.”
Relief supplies and assistance will be given to those who come back initially.
UEHRD, which is chaired by the State Counsellor, has expansion plans apart from current investment plans, business projects, giving humanitarian assistance, resettlement and development projects in Rakhine State.
Verification of the citizenship of those who return to Myanmar will be reportedly done by the National Verification Programme (NVP) and the returnees will have freedom of movement in accordance with their National Verification Certificate (NVC) status that they will obtain through the verification process.
UEHRD Vice-Chairman Dr. Win Myat Aye said: “They cannot live here as undocumented persons. They must hold an NVC and they will get appropriate rights automatically while they are passing through this NVC process. And then they will have this right to freedom of movement.”
The Myanmar government will receive these people at two camps which will be opened in Ngakhura and Taungpyoletwe where building and renovation work is currently underway.
Dr. Win Myat Aye added that the concerns made by the UN and international community over those being repatriated would not materialize as Myanmar government has concrete plans for them.