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

Myanmar's military-backed government has stated that over 300,000 Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh are former residents of western Rakhine state. According to the Associated Press, the government will accept their return once security conditions improve. The Rohingya refugee crisis is entering its ninth year, with hundreds of thousands of refugees still living in camps in Bangladesh after fleeing Myanmar in August 2017.

The refugees had fled Myanmar following a military crackdown, which drove more than 700,000 Rohingya across the border into Bangladesh. The operation led to accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide from the international community, including the UN. Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as one of the country's 135 lawful ethnic minorities.

In a separate development, Malaysia's Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said 1,000 Myanmar refugees have been identified for repatriation to their home country, and that he has asked his ministry's secretary-general to liaise with the Myanmar government on the refugees' gradual repatriation. He emphasized the importance of cooperation between the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the home ministry to verify the refugees' status and assess the security situation they would face upon returning.

Brief written by urgent.news from Channel News Asia, Associated Press, Winnipeg Free Press, Free Malaysia Today, New Straits Times — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.