Myanmar says over 300,000 Rohingya refugees verified for repatriation as exodus enters ninth year

Myanmar’s military-backed government announced on Saturday that over 300,000 Rohingya refugees currently residing in Bangladesh are former inhabitants of western Rakhine state. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed intent to accept their return when security conditions in Rakhine improve. This statement follows the ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis that began in 2017, when the military launched a crackdown on a Rohingya insurgent group, resulting in more than 700,000 refugees crossing the border into Bangladesh.

The operation has been characterized as ethnic cleansing and genocide by the international community. Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as one of the country's 135 ethnic minorities, instead classifying them as Bengalis from Bangladesh. The government has verified 426,545 of the 828,824 refugees on a list provided by Bangladesh, with 308,797 confirmed as former Rakhine residents.

However, 113,507 refugees could not be verified, and 4,241 were alleged to have engaged in terrorist activities. Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed to a two-year repatriation process in 2018, but security conditions in Myanmar deteriorated following an army takeover in 2021, leading to renewed armed resistance and forcing refugees to flee to Bangladesh and other countries.