The Bangladesh government says it has offered a plot of land for a new camp to shelter Rohingya Muslims who have fled recent violence in Myanmar.

The violence has driven nearly 300,000 Rohingya to flee Buddhist-majority Myanmar, with many of them packed into existing camps or huddled in makeshift settlements that have mushroomed along roadsides and in open fields across Cox’s Bazar district on the border.

Bangladesh’s junior Foreign Minister Mohammed Shahriar Alam said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had 2 acres (.8 hectares) near the existing camp of Kutupalong “to build temporary shelters for the Rohingya newcomers,” according to a message posted Monday on his Facebook account.

He also said the government would be registering the new arrivals on Monday. Hasina is scheduled to visit Rohingya refugees on Tuesday. </s> Image copyright AFP Image caption Bangladeshi security forces are already guarding Rohingya camps near the border

Bangladesh is limiting the movement of more than 400,000 Rohingya migrants who have fled from neighbouring Myanmar.

They must stay in fixed places allocated to them by the government and not travel elsewhere, police say.

Bangladesh also announced plans to build shelters for up to 400,000 people near the city of Cox's Bazar.

The mainly Muslim Rohingyas have been fleeing a Myanmar government offensive since last month, which the UN says could amount to ethnic cleansing.

Rights groups have accused the military of burning Rohingya villages.

But the army says it is responding to attacks by militants and denies it is targeting civilians.

Meanwhile, a fresh diplomatic row between Bangladesh and Myanmar has broken out over alleged violations of Bangladeshi airspace in the past week.

What are the new restrictions?

In a statement, Bangladeshi police said Rohingyas would not be allowed to travel anywhere outside of their allocated homes, not even to live with family or friends.

Transport operators and drivers have also been urged not to carry refugees, with landlords told not to rent out any property to them.

Analysts say the government wants to stop the Rohingya from disappearing into the general population and to keep them visible, in the hope of returning them to Myanmar - or even a third country.

What do we know about the new shelters?

According to Bangladesh's Daily Star newspaper, the new shelters will be on a site covering about 8 sq km (3 sq miles) of land, close to established camps which have been overwhelmed by arrivals from Myanmar.

A total of 8,500 temporary toilets will be built and 14 "makeshift warehouses" will be set up near the shelters, the paper says.

The new shelters are meant to be built within 10 days.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Many Rohingya migrants live in improvised camps

Image caption The violence has been concentrated in Myanmar's Rakhine area

An ambitious plan, but is it plausible?

Jonathan Head, BBC Southeast Asia correspondent

Bangladesh faces a colossal task accommodating the now more than 400,000 Rohingyas who have fled Myanmar. It rightly demands a lot more international support. And that support has been slow in coming.

One reason is the dramatic surge in the numbers of new arrivals in a very short period of time. Another is the politics of aid in southern Bangladesh.

The UN refugee agency is not allowed to deal with the large numbers of Rohingya who are living outside of official refugee camps as they do not want these people to have refugee status. Instead that role has been given to the International Organisation for Migration, a UN-related agency with expertise in assisting and monitoring migrants. The UN, with its proven "cluster system", is normally tasked with coordinating large-scale humanitarian emergencies.

In this context, the plan to build 14,000 homes, and 8,000 latrines is ambitious. The ten-day timescale set by the government seems unrealistic. In reality, many tens of thousands of Rohingyas are surviving with no shelter and little food, with more arriving every day. No-one has yet drawn up a plausible plan for assisting them all.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Jonathan Head went on a government-organised trip to Rakhine state last week

How is the crisis affecting Myanmar-Bangladesh relations?

Tensions have been mounting, with Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina heading to the UN General Assembly on Saturday to ask for more pressure to be put on Myanmar to help deal with the crisis.

The UN Security Council has appealed to Myanmar to stop the violence but no sanctions have been imposed.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC speaks to Rohingya who say they were injured in landmine blasts

Bangladesh has also lodged a formal protest with Myanmar about its use of military drones and helicopters which, it alleges, have violated Bangladeshi airspace on three days in the past week.

Bangladesh described their use as "provocative". Myanmar denies the allegation.

The two countries have also locked horns over the issue of landmines, with Myanmar denying Bangladesh accusations that its army is planting them on the border to prevent refugees from returning.

The BBC has spoken to Rohingya Muslims who were maimed after apparently stepping on landmines as they fled, but it was not clear when the mines were laid or by whom.

How did we get here?

The violence began on 25 August when Rohingya militants attacked police posts in northern Rakhine, killing 12 security personnel.

Rohingyas who have fled Myanmar since then say the military responded with a brutal campaign, burning villages and attacking civilians in a bid to drive them out.

The Rohingya, a stateless mostly Muslim minority in Buddhist-majority Rakhine, have long experienced persecution in Myanmar, which says they are illegal immigrants.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Watch: Who are the Rohingya?

Some who fled from Rakhine state told the BBC earlier this month about killings, rape and even massacres, while inside Rakhine, a BBC crew witnessed charred homes inside Rakhine.

A new Human Rights Watch report released on Friday accused the Myanmar military of an "ethnic cleansing campaign" and detailed scores of villages targeted with arson attacks.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Fergal Keane spoke to Buddhists in Myanmar's second city, Mandalay

Myanmar officials blame the Rohingya insurgents for the violence, with government spokesman Zaw Htay urging displaced people to find refuge in temporary camps set up in Rakhine state.

However, Mr Htay said Myanmar would not be able to allow all those who fled to Bangladesh to return. </s> Bangladesh has agreed to free a plot of land for a new camp to shelter hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled recent violence in Myanmar, an official said Monday.

The new camp will help relieve some pressure on existing settlements in the Bangladeshi border district of Cox's Bazar, where nearly 300,000 Rohingya have arrived since Aug. 25.

"The two refugees camps we are in are beyond overcrowded," said U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman Vivian Tan.

Other new arrivals were being sheltered in schools, or were huddling in makeshift settlements with no toilets along roadsides and in open fields. Basic resources were scarce, including food, clean water and medical aid.

Still, refugees were still arriving. An Associated Press reporter witnessed hundreds streaming into the border at Shah Puri Dwip on Monday.

"Tomorrow we are expecting an airlift of relief supplies for 20,000 people," Tan said.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had offered 2 acres (.8 hectares) near the existing camp of Kutupalong "to build temporary shelters for the Rohingya newcomers," according to a Facebook post Monday by Mohammed Shahriar Alam, a junior minister for foreign affairs.

He also said the government would begin registering the new arrivals on Monday. Hasina is scheduled to visit Rohingya refugees on Tuesday.

Aid agencies have been overwhelmed by the influx of Rohingya, many of whom are arriving hungry and traumatized after walking days through jungles or packing into rickety wooden boats in search of safety on the Bangladeshi side of the border.

Many tell similar stories — of Myanmar soldiers firing indiscriminately on their villages, burning their homes and warning them to leave or to die. Some say they were attacked by Buddhist mobs.

The government hospital in Cox's Bazar has been overwhelmed by Rohingya patients, with 80 arriving in the last two weeks suffering gunshot wounds as well as bad infections. At least three have been wounded in land mine blasts, and dozens have drowned when boats capsized during sea crossings.

The violence and exodus began on Aug. 25 when Rohingya insurgents attacked Myanmar police and paramilitary posts in what they said was an effort to protect their ethnic minority from persecution by security forces in the majority Buddhist country.

In response, the military unleashed what it called "clearance operations" to root out the insurgents. Accounts from refugees show the Myanmar military is also targeting civilians with shootings and wholesale burning of Rohingya villages in an apparent attempt to purge Rakhine state of Muslims.

Bloody anti-Muslim rioting that erupted in 2012 in Rakhine state forced more than 100,000 Rohingya into displacement camps in Bangladesh, where many still live today.

Rohingya have faced decades of discrimination and persecution in Myanmar and are denied citizenship despite centuries-olds roots in the Rakhine region. Myanmar denies Rohingya exist as an ethnic group and says those living in Rakhine are illegal migrants from Bangladesh </s> Bangladesh has agreed to free land for a new camp to shelter some of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled recent violence in Myanmar, an official said Monday. The new camp will help relieve some pressure on existing settlements in the Bangladeshi border district of Cox’s Bazar, where nearly 300,000 Rohingya have arrived since August 25.

“The two refugees camps we are in are beyond overcrowded,” said UN refugee agency spokeswoman Vivian Tan. Other new arrivals were being sheltered in schools, or were huddling in makeshift settlements with no toilets along roadsides and in open fields. Basic resources were scarce, including food, clean water and medical aid. Still, more refugees were arriving. An Associated Press reporter witnessed hundreds streaming through the border at Shah Puri Dwip on Monday.

“Tomorrow we are expecting an airlift of relief supplies for 20,000 people,” Tan said. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had offered 2 acres near the existing camp of Kutupalong “to build temporary shelters for the Rohingya newcomers,” according to a Facebook post Monday by Mohammed Shahriar Alam, a junior minister for foreign affairs.

He also said the government would begin fingerprinting and registering the new arrivals on Monday. Hasina is scheduled to visit Rohingya refugees on Tuesday. Aid agencies have been overwhelmed by the influx of Rohingya, many of whom are arriving hungry and traumatized after walking days through jungles or packing into rickety wooden boats in search of safety in Bangladesh.

Many tell similar stories of Myanmar soldiers firing indiscriminately on their villages, burning their homes and warning them to leave or to die. Some say they were attacked by Buddhist mobs. The government hospital in Cox’s Bazar has been overwhelmed by Rohingya patients, with 80 arriving in the last two weeks suffering gunshot wounds as well as bad infections. At least three have been wounded in land mine blasts, and dozens have drowned when boats capsized during sea crossings.

The violence and exodus began on Aug. 25 when Rohingya insurgents attacked Myanmar police and paramilitary posts in what they said was an effort to protect their ethnic minority from persecution by security forces in the majority Buddhist country. In response, the military unleashed what it called “clearance operations” to root out the insurgents. Accounts from refugees show the Myanmar military is also targeting civilians with shootings and wholesale burning of Rohingya villages in an apparent attempt to purge Rakhine state of Muslims.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App </s> A Rohingya refugee woman cooks dinner at Palong Khali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh January 9, 2018. — Reuters picYANGON, Jan 16 — Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed to repatriate Rohingya displaced by an army crackdown “within two years”, Dhaka said today, outlining the first clear timeline for a return of hundreds of thousands of refugees.

The agreement says the process will be “completed preferably within 02 (two) years from the commencement of repatriation”, according to a statement from the Bangladeshi government following talks in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw.

The deal applies to Rohingya who fled Myanmar in two major outbreaks of violence since October 2016, when militants from the stateless Muslim minority first attacked border-guard posts in northern Rakhine state.

It does not cover Rohingya refugees who were living in Bangladesh prior to that date who the UN estimates number at 200,000.

“During this two-day meeting, we agreed on the form that refugees will have to fill to be able to come back to Myanmar,” Mohammad Sufiur Rahman, Bangladesh ambassador in Myanmar told AFP.

“We should be able to start the process in the coming days,” he said, but added Myanmar’s stated deadline of next week for starting Rohingya repatriation was “not possible”.

The agreement follows a pact between the countries in November paving the way for repatriations from January 23, a deadline that is likely to slip given the logistical challenges of the cross-border operation.

Myanmar has faced intense diplomatic pressure to allow the safe return of Rohingya refugees driven out by its army.

But many Rohingya in crowded camps in Bangladesh say they are reluctant to return to Rakhine state having fled atrocities including murder, rape and arson attacks on their homes.

Despite that, Myanmar authorities have pressed ahead with the construction of a “temporary camp” in Rakhine’s Maungdaw district.

Eventually the site “will accommodate about 30,000 people in its 625 buildings” before they can be resettled permanently, Myanmar’s state media reported this week.

But only a fraction of the buildings have been finished. — AFP </s> LOOK out from the high-ground in the middle of Kutupalong and two sights fill the eyes: Myanmar’s green hills silhouetted in the east and dehydrated, denuded mounds pocked by the blue-black tarpaulin sheets of makeshift shelters everywhere else.

That jarring contrast in Bangladesh’s landscape is new. It’s an indirect consequence of brutal military operations in Myanmar that forced 650,000 Rohingya refugees into the country, the majority since August 2017. Most of their journeys have involved witnessing horrendous atrocities, flight from burning villages, and then stumbling through forests or battling monsoon-charged waters in search of safety.

Along the way, they pitched camp wherever they found space and turned to the local forest for everything from shelter to fuel. Satellite images show a clear difference in forest cover between October 2016 and November 2017 that looks similar to the aftermath of clear cutting. They continue to rely on the forest in Bangladesh.

As the refugees poured in through various points along the border, the Bangladeshi military tried to round them up around the existing Kutupalong and Balukhali settlements – in such numbers that they merged into the world’s largest refugee camp.

The weight and rate of that influx have created an additional environmental crisis in Bangladesh’s sensitive border district, stripping away 4,000 acres (1,618.74ha) of forest land, according to numbers from an internal Bangladesh forestry department report shared with Mongabay. Crucial groundwater supplies have also been depleted and contaminated, according to the World Health Organisation.

SEE ALSO: Diphtheria hits Rohingya camps amid rising evidence of genocide

It is a crisis borne of chaos that has not only tipped a delicate balance on Bangladesh’s water-scarce and cyclone prone southeastern tip but also accentuates the humanitarian challenges for both refugees and an overwhelmed local population.

There are now almost one million refugees, including those from previous influxes, living in an area hit by cyclones in each of the previous three years and where, in the worst parts, refugees say they have to live on two pots of water a day.

“It was like a jungle, all of this. There were trees and fruit plantations,” said Rehana Begum, a local Bangladeshi whose home now lies in the middle of the mega-camp. “Now there are so many homes here but they only appeared over the last two or three months.”

Those homes are simply tarpaulin sheets fastened to bamboo poles and pinned into patches of earth the refugees hacked from the hills. From inside the Kutupalong-Balukhali camp, the lines of those tents and hills they cling to are impossible to see past – a sea of dust and plastic that repeats into the horizon, scarcely a tree in sight. Satellite imagery provides a startling overview of those 1.5 square miles (4sq km): from August 2017 onward, Kutupalong’s brown mass creeps steadily outward, eating farther into the government Teknaf Game Reserve that surrounds it until it joins with the smaller Balukhali camp to the south.

“From the late seventies, whenever the Rohingya people came to Bangladesh, they settled down in Teknaf and Ukhia areas and basically in forest land, as there is no [other] available space in those areas,” said Ali Kabir, the Bangladeshi forestry department’s officer for Cox’s Bazar South, the district the Kutupalong-Balukhali camp falls under.

While the Muslim minority from Myanmar’s western Rakhine state have previously fled to Bangladesh in the tens of thousands after operations by the Burmese military in 1978, 1991 and with increasing frequency over the past 10 years, the most recent influx, and corresponding changes, have been far more intense.

“They are cutting down the hills, they’re chopping all the trees, herbs, shrubs then erecting their shelters. As a result, the topography of that area has been greatly damaged,” Kabir said.

The view by satellite also shows a not-quite-browned but visibly thinning ring of green around the camps, especially to the west.

It is from the west that every day, all day, a constant stream of Rohingya men, as well as some women and children, are found wading through puddles, bowed under the loads of firewood each has to go hunting for several times a week. Eight hundred tons of fuel wood are now needed daily, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The sheer weight of that demand created by the refugees in just the Kutupalong-Balukhali camp’s surroundings – and more spread through other camps – has forced the forests to rapidly recede. That doesn’t include the thousands of babies who will be born in coming months.

The camp’s overwhelming brownness does gradually give way to more greenery on foot-beaten paths that lead away from it, but mile upon mile of vestigial tree stumps and scythed-down shrubbery offer no more than a hint of how far the forest has retreated. What had been a 6-mile (9.6km) round trip when the newest Rohingya refugees first arrived has doubled into 12 miles (19.3km) with entire days spent walking and cutting trees.

The route winds on and on, offering no shade from the Bangladeshi dry season’s unfiltered sun. Everywhere there is either someone carrying loads or sat down by the side on one of the numerous breaks they have to take. Barefoot, both men and women wrap themselves in simple pieces of cloth, known as lungis, paired with a vest or blouse and no protection from the elements. Few carry water and some even drink from muddied puddles created a few days earlier by unexpected rains.

“I don’t know how to count the miles I’m walking but I start very early in the morning and get to the forest by about 10 o’clock,” said Ayub Ali, who fled Maungdaw township in Myanmar in September. He spends an hour hacking away at the trees with his machete, the universal tool of Rohingya and Bangladeshi villagers, before ambling his way home, resting regularly by leaning against a stack of branches taller than himself.

SEE ALSO: Blockchain technology employed to give Rohingya refugees identity cards

Now in his 60s, Ali has never before had to actually collect wood but now makes the arduous journey two or three times a week. Few of the refugees recall ever having to do such work in Myanmar, where they would simply buy wood or gas from local suppliers.

With the search for firewood becoming more strenuous and many worried about what they will do when the impending cyclone season adds extra challenges and strains, some Rohingya appear to be stockpiling the treasured commodity. While most houses have branches drying out on their roofs, some have stacks taking up whole corners of their homes.

Around 1,000 football fields worth of timber would be needed to supply the refugees for a single year, according to Graham Eastmond, who coordinates the shelter sector for the international humanitarian response.

Many out collecting firewood are children, some with adults but others sent along with siblings and friends by parents who also have to make sure they are in the camps to collect their aid supplies – which usually offer no alternative fuel for cooking on.

Not everyone is able to walk the whole way, especially some of the youngest children. Instead, they can be found along the route, or even in the camp itself, hacking at the ground to free left behind tree stumps or pulling at wiry roots – a task almost as tedious as the longer journey because of how little fuel they can scavenge.

A lot of that fuel also poses health risks for the refugees as it produces more smoke that becomes trapped in their confined living spaces.

“When they’re cooking green fuel, they’re going to get sicker a lot faster; eye infections, respiratory infections,” said an environmental consultant involved in the emergency response, who could not be named as he was not cleared to speak to media. “It’s just really unhealthy to be cooking green wood and its worse for the forest too because if you’re cooking green wood, it means you’re cooking on the last of it.”

The majority of deforested land has been government-owned, according to forestry official Kabir. Almost half of that land was part of the 15-year-old government Social Forestry Program – now decimated.

The program relied on public land and quick-growing trees that could, within a decade, provide local communities a sustainable income through selling the highly-valued timber used for furniture.

“About 2,000 acres of social forestry has been completely destroyed…almost 1,000 poor people are involved in this programme,” Kabir said, noting that local Bangladeshis have handed in a petition requesting the government compensate them for the lost land.

In contrast to previous influxes of Rohingya refugees, many local Bangladeshis have tolerated the Rohingya – if not willingly, at least after prompts by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina – but also grumble about how long they will stay.

Rehana Begum, the area resident who saw dozens of refugee families move in around her, said she accepted them as fellow Muslims but complains about how much the area has changed and even accuses the refugees of stealing from her. But a nearby group of Rohingya say it is not their fault, and there was nowhere else for them to settle.

While there have been genuine concerns for local Bangladeshis about the damage done to the environment and increasing pressure on resources, many do appear to have taken advantage of the situation. Some refugees have reported Bangladeshis demanding small fees from them while collecting wood or for settling on nearby land, and there are signs of a growing trade in firewood.

SEE ALSO: Burma, Bangladesh to agree plan for repatriation of Rohingya refugees

Though Kabir denied any wood was being brought in from outside the camp area, as they have existing stringent checks for smuggled timber along the route, the signs are there.

Muhammad Araf, 27, is a new arrival in the Balukhali refugee camp and one of the Rohingya who have gone into business buying bundles of wood for about 25 cents each and then selling them for about a 12 cent profit per bundle.

Every morning small electric buggies carrying bundles of firewood wrapped in red string head for the camps and surrounding villages.

He said it was local Bangladeshis who were bringing the wood in from somewhere north of Kutupalong, though he did not know exactly where. Without the government monitoring it, it is hard to know exactly how much the trade in wood is also affecting the forestry even beyond the camps’ immediate surroundings.

The Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf districts that run along Bangladesh’s border with Myanmar have long had problems with water. Usable groundwater supplies in some parts are much deeper than usual, which makes getting to them hard and limits how much can be used in an area that already had around 300,000 Rohingya refugees living in it, mostly from influxes since 1991.

That problem, according to a 2012 study by the University of Dhaka, is caused by a high amount of rainwater running off into the nearby River Naf and Bay of Bengal – a problem expected to be exacerbated by mass deforestation reducing the amount of vegetation to pull water into the underground aquifers. The IUCN also highlighted the region as one of 10 in Bangladesh that are severely vulnerable to saline water from the sea contaminating sweet-water sources locals may otherwise have been able to draw from.

“The more water that goes, the less that gets recharged into the aquifers because that water runs right out to the sea. It doesn’t trickle down like it’s supposed to,” said the environmental consultant who asked to have his name withheld.

In the Hakimpara refugee camp, a quarter of shallow tube wells have already dried up, according to aid group Doctors Without Borders.

Adding to the pressure on water supplies is the fallout of a chaotic response to the rapid influx. Latrines were installed hastily to meet one of the fastest movements of refugees in a generation and many were poorly built or not put in the right areas.

Leaking latrines, open defecation and tube wells placed too close to latrines have polluted the groundwater, leading to more than 60 percent used by the refugees being contaminated, the WHO warned.

Kabir, the Bangladeshi forestry official, says the easiest solution is to begin repatriating the refugees. While the government has signed an agreement with Myanmar and even submitted a list of the first 100,000 refugees, such a process would be long even if not opposed by both international organizations and the refugees themselves, who fear being exposed to exactly the same dangers if returned without their rights being guaranteed.

More realistically, plans are being made to harness existing nurseries and nurture more in order to start reforestation around the camps. Part of that will include eco-terracing – quickly plugging some greenery back into the stripped-down hills to provide some protection against landslides when monsoon rains, and potentially cyclones, hit in the coming months.

SEE ALSO: UN flags plight of ‘forgotten’ Rohingya children in central Rakhine

By using existing nurseries as well as offering cash-for-work, aid agencies are hoping to involve the local population and ease tensions between the two communities.

They are also hoping to limit how many Rohingya are turning to the forests for firewood by improving the stoves they use and offering alternatives fuels like gas or briquettes based on harvested rice husks or coconuts – though some of these options are limited by season.

Shelter coordinator for the international humanitarian response Eastmond said the scale of the environmental impact and the discussions they are now having has highlighted how little priority has been placed on providing disaster victims with fuel supplies.

“It should be a sector in itself, it never gets looked at quick enough – that’s the argument,” he said.

In the meantime, Rohingya refugees like Sunjuddin, who arrived after an attack on his village in Maungdaw during the Muslim Eid festival in September, said he can see the trees disappearing but they have no other option.

“This is difficult, it’s draining to do this every day,” he said. “But we need to eat and there’s nothing else to cook on.”

This article is by Kaamil Ahmed, a foreign correspondent who has reported on conflicts, labor and the environment in South Asia and the Middle East. You can find him on Twitter at @kaamilahmed. Originally published on Mongabay. </s> A top Myanmar official said Monday that a camp to house Rohingya Muslim and Hindu refugees who return from Bangladesh will be ready by its promised deadline next week.

More than 650,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh after 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, U.S. and others have said the operations were “ethnic cleansing” to remove the... </s> The head of Bangladesh's refugee commission said plans to begin a voluntary repatriation of Rohingya Muslim refugees to their native Myanmar on Thursday were scrapped after officials were unable to find anyone who wanted to return.

The refugees "are not willing to go back now," Abul Kalam told The Associated Press, adding that officials "can't force them to go" but will continue to try to "motivate them so it happens."

The announcement came after about 1,000 Rohingya demonstrated at a camp in Bangladesh against returning to Myanmar, from where hundreds of thousands fled army-led violence last year.

At the Unchiprang camp, one of the sprawling refugee settlements near the city of Cox's Bazar, another Bangladeshi refugee official had implored the Rohingya to return to their country over a loudspeaker.

"We have arranged everything for you, we have six buses here, we have trucks, we have food. We want to offer everything to you. If you agree to go, we'll take you to the border, to the transit camp," he said.

"We won't go," hundreds of voices, including children's, chanted in reply.

Bangladesh authorities had attempted to begin the repatriation of more than 700,000 Rohingya, despite calls from United Nations officials and human rights groups to hold off. According to a UN-brokered deal with Bangladesh and Myanmar, the Rohingya cannot be forced to repatriate.

The countries had planned to send an initial group of 2,251 back from mid-November at a rate of 150 per day.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would continue to work with international partners including the UN "to ensure that the Rohingya themselves are part of any decisions on their future."

Bob Rae, who has served as Canada's special envoy to the region, on Thursday called for Bangladesh and Myanmar to "re-commit to real engagement with #Rohingya and UN agencies and find the path to voluntary safe and dignified return."

The huge exodus of Rohingya began in August 2017 after Myanmar security forces launched a brutal crackdown following attacks by an insurgent group on guard posts. The scale, organization and ferocity of the operation led to accusations from the international community, including the UN, of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

No sign of movement at transit camp

Most people in Buddhist-majority Myanmar do not accept that the Rohingya Muslims are a native ethnic group, viewing them as "Bengalis" who entered illegally from Bangladesh, even though generations of Rohingya have lived in Myanmar. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, as well as access to education and hospitals.

In addition to those who arrived in Bangladesh last year, about 200,000 other Rohingya had fled Myanmar during previous waves of violence and persecution.

Despite assurances from Myanmar, human rights activists said Thursday the conditions were not yet safe for Rohingya refugees to go back.

"Nothing the Myanmar government has said or done suggests that the Rohingya will be safe upon return," Human Rights Watch refugee rights director Bill Frelick said in a statement.

The group said 150 people from 30 families were to be transferred to a transit camp on Thursday, but the camp was empty except for security guards.

Bangladesh authorities have said they've worked with the UN refugee agency to compile lists of people willing to return to Myanmar.

At the Jamtoli refugee camp, 25-year-old Setara said she and her two children, ages 4 and 7, were on a repatriation list, but her parents were not. She said she had never asked to return to Myanmar, and that she had sent her children to a school run by aid workers Thursday morning as usual.

"They killed my husband; now I live here with my parents," said Setara, who only gave one name. "I don't want to go back."

She said other refugees whose names have appeared on the Bangladesh government's repatriation list had fled to other camps, hoping to disappear amid the crowded lanes of refugees, aid workers and Bangladeshi soldiers.

Negotiations for repatriation have been continuing for months, but plans last January to begin sending refugees back to Myanmar's Rakhine state were called off amid concerns among aid workers and Rohingya that their return would be met with violence.

Foreign leaders, including U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, have criticized Myanmar's Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader Aung San Suu Kyi this week on the sidelines of a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Singapore for her handling of the Rohingya crisis.

But on Thursday, Pence said that U.S. officials were "encouraged to hear that" the repatriation process would begin. </s> More than 650,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to neighboring Bangladesh after Myanmar’s army launched an atrocious attack on Rohingya villages in August. Although Myanmar claimed it was a crackdown against terrorists, the United Nations have said the operation amounted to “ethnic cleansing” to remove the minority from the Western Rakhine state.

However, the Rohingya people did not find relief in Cox’s Bazar, one of the largest refugee camps in the world, either. Diseases like cholera spread through the camp like wildfire. Babies were born out in the open on beaches. The Bangladesh government refused to issue birth certificates to Rohingya babies who are born into refugee camps, so technically, they do not exist. Without an identity card, the plight of the Rohignya is only exacerbated.

However, the situation quickly worsened when after just two or three months of escape from Myanmar, the Burmese civilian government, led by controversial Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, struck a deal with Bangladesh not just to stop the influx of Rohingya refugees but also to take back those who had made their way — through great peril — to Cox’s Bazar.

A top Myanmar official said Monday that a camp to host the Rohingya will be ready by next week. The repatriation process is expected to start from Jan 23.

Win Myat Aye, the Burmese minister of social welfare, relief and resettlement, said Myanmar was holding a meeting with Bangladeshi officials to decide the number of Rohingya and how they will be scrutinized to be placed in the 124-acre Hla Po Khaung camp.

Currently, the camp will be able to accommodate 300,000 people in 625 building structures.

However, the agreement by the two neighboring countries have raised grave questions about the well-being of the Rohingya refugees and the feasibility of repatriation in the absence of a path to social and political integration— without which it will be tantamount to murder to send the refugees back to Myanmar where burning villages, throwing babies in fire and rape remain the prime oppression techniques by the Burmese army.

The United Nations and human rights groups have urged the Myanmar government to ensure safe and voluntary return of the refugees, while many are concerned whether the Rohingya would want to return to Myanmar in the first place. However, even if some refugees do choose to repatriate, there is little proof that appropriate measures will be placed to secure their basic human rights, citizenship or protection from further persecution.

“There are previous episodes of displacement and return of the Rohingya, and other ethnic minorities, in Burma over the last 20 years which do not inspire confidence,” a report by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan stated.

The Commons International Development Committee said it was “clear” that sexual violence remain weapons of war used by the Myanmar military. It also warned of the “chilling prospect” of the area becoming a “powder keg of radicalization.”

The committee also called the atrocities against Rohingya a “huge human tragedy.”

“Burma's actions have imposed human suffering on hundreds of thousands of people and presented the world with a huge bill for humanitarian relief estimated to amount to a billion pounds per year,” it said.

The fear of reprisal from the international community in response to these reported war crimes has forced Myanmar to repatriate 50-100 people per day. Apart from the fact that at this rate repatriation can take around a decade to complete, Myanmar’s army — which has control over Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Border Affairs — still seems unwilling to clear a path to citizenship and political inclusion for the people of Rohingya.

Even if repatriation can provide safety for refugee, proving prior residency in Myanmar will be difficult for the minority community who were either never issued residency documents or who lost them while fleeing the violence.

These questions raise serious questions about the viability of the entire process.
Bangladesh announces plans to build a giant refugee camp the size of a small city to house nearly 400,000 Rohingya refugees.