Myanmar’s junta-backed government has identified more than 300,000 Rohingya who have taken refuge in Bangladesh as former residents of Rakhine state. The country has said that verified Rohingyas will be repatriated in stages once the security situation improves. It also denied that more than 1 million Rohingya have entered Bangladesh, saying that 540,000 people have left Myanmar for Bangladesh since the 2017 violence, while 200,000 remain in northern Rakhine.
The information was given in a statement by Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday. The statement said that Myanmar has verified the information of 426,545 people from the list of 828,824 refugees sent by the Bangladesh government. Of these, 387,797 people have been confirmed as registered or former residents of Rakhine.
However, Myanmar authorities have been unable to verify the identities of 113,507 people on the list. Naypyidaw has also outright refused to take back 4,241 people, accusing them of being involved in “terrorist activities”.
In a statement, the Myanmar junta government has made it clear that no repatriation or physical repatriation activities will begin until the security situation in Rakhine improves.
The ministry also rejected claims that more than one million people have been displaced from Rakhine. It said that more than 540,000 people have crossed into Bangladesh since the 2017 violence, while more than 200,000 remain in northern Rakhine.
In August 2017, about 740,000 Rohingya fled across the border to Bangladesh to escape the violence and persecution of the Myanmar military. Including the Rohingya who came earlier, about 1.2 million Rohingya currently live in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char, Bangladesh, more than half of whom are children.
In 2018, Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed to a two-year repatriation process. However, since the military coup in 2021, the conflict between the junta government and various ethnic armed groups in Myanmar has intensified. In particular, most of Rakhine State has now fallen under the control of the rebel group Arakan Army. Due to this intense fighting, the internal security situation in Myanmar is extremely unstable, as a result of which safe repatriation has come to a complete halt.
Meanwhile, between 2024 and mid-2026, thousands of new Rohingya have crossed the border into Bangladesh due to the ongoing violence in Rakhine, further increasing the pressure on existing camps.
In addition, international humanitarian assistance for Rohingya refugees is gradually decreasing due to new geopolitical crises around the world. Due to the funding crisis, it is becoming difficult to provide food assistance, health care and education programs for refugees. In the crowded and dilapidated camps, malnutrition, criminal activities and the risk of floods and landslides during the rainy season are constantly increasing.
In addition, due to the lack of employment in the camps and uncertainty about their future, many Rohingya youth are falling into the clutches of brokers and trying to cross the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea in small boats to Malaysia and Indonesia. However, hundreds of Rohingya lose their lives every year on this risky sea journey.
Meanwhile, last July, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said that Myanmar had agreed to take back 5,000 Rohingya refugees currently living in Malaysia and 350,000 from Bangladesh as part of a repatriation program.
However, Han Win Aung, an official at the country’s Foreign Ministry, rejected the Malaysian Prime Minister’s claim at the time, saying that the repatriation program was limited only to verified Myanmar nationals currently detained in Malaysian detention centers.
Fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army over control of Rakhine began in 2023. This led to more Rohingya entering Bangladesh. The Arakan Army currently controls most of Rakhine. As a result, the chances of the Rohingya returning have also diminished.
