173 Bangladeshi citizens are returning from Myanmar after being detained for a long time. They were all imprisoned in that country’s prisons. The 285 Myanmar BGP members who fled to Bangladesh will be returned to Bangladesh on Thursday by the Myanmar Navy ship they are returning to.
On Tuesday (April 23) morning, Myanmar Navy ship Chin Duin departed from Sittwe Port in Rakhine State with Bangladeshi nationals. The ship is scheduled to reach Bangladesh on Wednesday.
ASM Sayem, Counselor of the Bangladesh Embassy in Myanmar, said, ‘Those who were sent back were detained several times for illegal entry into Myanmar. They are being sent back only after it is confirmed that they are citizens of Bangladesh after verification.
After the ship carrying Bangladeshi nationals reached Bangladesh at the Cox’s Bazar border on Wednesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that 285 members of Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) would be sent back to the country on the same ship.
In a press conference on the Prime Minister’s visit to Thailand on Monday, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud said that if the ship with the stranded Bangladeshis reaches the country on Wednesday, the BGP members who escaped from Myanmar will be sent back to their home country on that ship.
Out of these 173 returnees, 144 Bangladeshi nationals were imprisoned in Myanmar prisons after being sentenced for various terms.
Mohammad Shaheen Imran, Deputy Commissioner of Cox’s Bazar, said, ‘When the returning Bangladeshis come, there will be Border Guard Bangladesh, there will be immigration people, they will basically take care of things.’
Who are being sent back to Bangladesh
The Myanmar Navy ship left the country’s Sittwe port for Bangladesh around 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday. They were picked up by the Myanmar Naval Ship Chin Duing through tight security.
The Bangladesh Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar said that among the 173 people sent back from Myanmar, the largest number of citizens are from Cox’s Bazar district. 129 of them live in Cox’s Bazar.
Of the rest, 30 are from Bandarban, seven from Rangamati and one each from Khagrachari, Noakhali, Narayanganj, Chittagong, Rajbari, Narsingdi and Nilphamari districts.
The Bangladesh Embassy in Myanmar said that among these 173 people, 144 Bangladeshis were convicted and imprisoned in various prisons. All of them have already completed their sentences.
The remaining 29 have not yet completed their sentences but were brought under special amnesty during this repatriation initiative.
They were held in Sittwe prison before being sent back to Bangladesh. On Wednesday, after confirming the identity of all, they were picked up by the country’s navy ship through strict security.
ASM Sayem, the counselor of the Bangladesh Embassy in Myanmar, said, ‘First of all, the Bangladesh authorities have checked whether the detained citizens are legitimate citizens of Bangladesh or not. Once that is confirmed, the process of repatriation begins.’
Why were Bangladeshis detained in Myanmar?
The length of the border of Bangladesh with Myanmar is about 300 km. The Bangladesh Embassy in Myanmar said that these Bangladeshis crossed the border illegally and entered Myanmar at various times in the last few years.
Embassy official Sayem said, ‘None of the citizens of Bangladesh who entered this country illegally did not have any kind of documents. When we were informed from various places that they are Bangladeshi citizens, we started to verify.’
The embassy says some of these Bangladeshis crossed the border and tried to go elsewhere through Myanmar, while others were detained by the country’s security forces after entering the country illegally.
Myanmar courts also sentence those detained at various times according to the country’s laws. 144 people have completed the sentence given by the court.
Embassy official Sayem said that the remaining 29 people were pardoned after taking the initiative to send them back to Bangladesh, so that they can return to their country.
After that, the Bangladesh Embassy in Myanmar held several rounds of meetings with the country’s government and started the process of sending them back. From there, a list of 173 people was made one by one and they were picked up on a ship of the Myanmar Navy through strict security.
In Monday’s press conference, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud said that the citizens were trapped in various ways. They are being repatriated.
Photos uploaded to the Facebook page of the Bangladesh Embassy in Yangon on Tuesday morning show Bangladeshi nationals embarking on a ship to confirm their identity at Myanmar’s Sittwe port.
Myanmar’s BGP will return in the same ship
Myanmar’s junta has been at war with rebel groups for nearly six months. As a result of this, 330 people, including members of Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP), fled to Bangladesh last February.
After that, the Bangladesh government started to send them back to the country. After several rounds of negotiations, on February 15, 330 Myanmar nationals were sent back to that country.
After that, in the last two and a half months, 285 people, including BGP members, fled to Bangladesh from the border areas of Cox’s Bazar and Bandarban.
Within the initiative to send them back, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the ship that will come to Bangladesh to pick up those citizens of Myanmar, will bring back more than 150 Bangladeshis.
So, as part of the prisoner exchange agreement between the two countries, are the trapped Bangladeshis being brought back to Bangladesh in a Myanmar Navy ship? Such a question was asked to the Bangladesh Embassy official in Myanmar.
Although they don’t know any answer to this question, Embassy official Sayem said.
The district administration of Cox’s Bazar says that the repatriated Bangladeshis will be received under the supervision of Immigration and BGB after entering the waters of this country. Myanmar citizens will be picked up on the ship after the process is completed.
Cox’s Bazar district administration Mohammad Shaheen Imran said, ‘We are not sure when the ship of the Myanmar Navy will reach Bangladesh’s waters. BGB and Immigration Department will oversee the whole matter. The district administration will support them in any way.’
Bangladesh Embassy in Myanmar hopes that the ship will reach Bangladesh by Wednesday afternoon.
Councilor Sayem said, ‘The ship on which the Bangladeshis are being taken back is a ship of the Naval Force. Therefore, Myanmar Navy will ensure the safety of that ship.
As sent back in the first round
In the first phase, 330 of the Myanmar nationals who took refuge in Bangladesh in early February were sent back by sea from Cox’s Bazar.
From the morning of February 15, they were transferred to a Myanmar ship in the deep sea from Cox’s Bazar JT wharf in two rounds by a Bangladeshi ship.
In the morning, 165 people and the remaining 165 in the afternoon were transferred from the wharf to the Myanmar ship.
Earlier that day, BGP members and others who fled Myanmar were gathered in Jetghat area of Cox’s Bazar Inani by 12 buses from two shelters in the morning. Initially they were kept in a temporary shed near the jetty ghat. From there, one by one, they were taken to the ship.
In addition, the injured citizens of the country were taken to the port in four ambulances.
A ship of Bangladesh’s navy has already been stationed in Myanmar’s waters to pick up its own citizens. Due to legal complications, that ship was not allowed to enter the waters of Bangladesh.
A delegation of five members from Myanmar arrived that morning. They read the list of asylum seekers and prepared to take them back.
Of the 330 people sent back that time, 302 were BGP members, four BGP family members, two army personnel, 18 immigration personnel and four civilians.
Most of the 285 people who are being sent back this time are BGP members.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that the Myanmar ship that is coming with the Bangladeshis will take their border guards to their country.
Source: BBC
Tags: Bangladeshis returning Myanmar
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