In the latest attempt at repatriating Rohingya refugees to Myanmar,
no family in Bangladesh volunteered to return to the country, as Radio Free Asia reported on 22 August 2019. The two countries had announced that repatriation would start on 22 August 2019, beginning with 3,450 Rohingya drawn from refugee registration lists.
Thomas Muller, Persecution analyst at World Watch Research, is not surprised: "As long as fighting continues and living conditions are dire in Myanmar, it is no wonder that repatriation fails. It is anyway questionable how the
repatriation lists were compiled under such circumstances at all, as an article by the New Humanitarian indicated on 21 August 2019. This has caused rising levels of fear and protests in the refugee camps, which are probably the largest in the world at present. Increasing insecurity and lawlessness is also affecting the tiny Christian fraction among the Rohingya."
Thomas Muller continues: "Meanwhile in Myanmar, fighting between ethnic minorities and the Burmese Army continues as seen in an
attack against an army installation in August 2019 (Radio Free Asia, 16 August 2019). Although
fresh peace-talks are planned, the fact that the president of the Kachin Baptist Convention, Dr Hkalam Samson, was to be
taken to court for remarks he made about ethnic and religious issues in Myanmar at a meeting with US President Trump at the Whitehouse in July 2019, does not help in building trust among minorities (The Irrawaddy, 20 and 28 August 2019). Charges were only
dropped after the US State Department had expressed its concern about the lawsuit (Reuters, 9 September 2019)."
