UNHCR pushes rethink on repatriation plan

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has suggested Bangladesh and Myanmar to suspend the bilateral plan on Rohingya repatriation saying it threatens the refugees' security and well-being, report agencies.
The UN refugee agency and other groups have also urged a rethink of the plan to send Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar amid fears of forced repatriations and the inability of aid agencies to ensure the safety of hundreds of thousands who fled bloodshed at home.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh officials said Tuesday a huge fire burned and gunshots were heard in a village across the border in Myanmar's conflict-scarred Rakhine state, where authorities want to return Rohingya refugees.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters on January 16 that the worst would be to move these people from camps in Bangladesh to camps in Myanmar keeping an artificial situation for a long time and not allowing for them to regain their normal lives.
HRW, the New York-based global rights body urged the two countries to renegotiate the repatriation agreement because of numerous flaws that endanger refugees' lives; the impossible timetable for voluntary, safe, and sustainable returns; and the failure to involve the UN refugee agency.
"Rohingya refugees shouldn't be returned to camps guarded by the very same Burmese forces who forced them to flee massacres and gang rapes, and torched villages," said Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW.
"The repatriation plan appears to be a public relations ploy to hide the fact that Burma has not taken measures to ensure safe and sustainable returns."
The Myanmar authorities have shown no ability to ensure the safe, dignified, and voluntary return of Rohingya refugees as provided by international standards, Human Rights Watch said.
"In order for the repatriation to be (done) right, to be sustainable, actually viable ... you need to really address a number of issues that for the time being we have heard nothing about," UNHCR head Filippo Grandi said in Geneva, noting that issues like citizenship had not been addressed.
Meanwhile, a report from Cox's Bazar adds: A "big fire" was seen raging late Monday in an abandoned village from Tombru, a frontier post in Cox's Bazar district, a senior Bangladeshi border guard told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The fire occurred the evening before Bangladesh was due to start repatriating hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees to Rakhine state under an agreement with Myanmar.
It is believed the homes ablaze overnight belonged to Rohingya, the official said. The border region is controlled by Myanmar's forces, he added.
Another border official told AFP he heard several gunshots before flames were seen leaping from the village.
Abul Naser, a 42-year-old Rohingya refugee living near the border, described seeing "flames and clouds of smoke".
"They are trying to send us a message, they are trying to scare us so that we never go back," he told AFP, referring to Myanmar forces.