Myanmar says 2,000 Rohingya to arrive in Nov

MNA Exclusive Desk: Myanmar will take back a first group of 2,000 Rohingya refugees from camps in Bangladesh in November, said a top official of the country on Wednesday.

Officials from the two countries announced on Tuesday that some of the 720,000 Muslim Rohingya who fled a deadly military clampdown in the Buddhist-majority country last year would start returning next month.

Myanmar foreign secretary Myint Thu visited the camps in Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday to discuss the repatriations with refugees, reported news agency.

Thu said Myanmar has verified 5,000 names on a list of 8,032 Rohingya that Bangladesh authorities sent in February.

“From that 5,000, the first batch will be about 2,000 people. And then a second batch will follow. So in mid-November we will receive the first batch,” Thu told reporters.