The Myanmar army’s “pilot venture” to repatriate about 1,000 Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh has been met with scepticism, with rights campaigners calling it a “PR marketing campaign”.

Final week, a delegation from Myanmar visited the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district – residence to greater than 1 million Rohingya – to interview potential candidates for his or her return as early as subsequent month.

Almost 800,000 Rohingya fled their homeland in Myanmar in 2017 after a brutal army crackdown throughout which hundreds of the ethnic Muslim minority have been killed, raped and their properties torched as a part of a scorched-earth marketing campaign.

Tens of hundreds of the persecuted Rohingya took shelter in Bangladesh earlier than the 2017 crackdown that the United Nations stated was carried out with “genocidal intent”. In a 2018 report, the UN known as for military chief Min Aung Hlaing, and different generals, to face genocide fees.

The Rohingya left in Myanmar undergo segregation and widespread discrimination in addition to having their citizenship revoked. Rights teams say the measures quantity to apartheid.

“We see this transfer as a PR marketing campaign. If the junta genuinely needs to repatriate the refugees, they have already got an inventory of greater than 800,000 refugees from previous years and will have revealed their plan earlier,” Nay San Lwin, co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition, instructed Al Jazeera.

“This determination to repatriate simply 1,000 refugees appears to be an try to ease strain from China and different international locations,” he stated.

‘My coronary heart aches for my homeland’

Myanmar’s generals seized energy in a coup in February 2021, plunging the Southeast Asian nation into renewed political turmoil solely 10 years after the tip of 49 years of strict army rule.

The Myanmar delegation’s go to to the camps is believed to be brokered by China and facilitated by the UN refugee company (UNHCR).

Nur Alom, 42, who fled to Bangladesh in September 2017 along with his spouse and three kids from the Maungdaw district of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, instructed Al Jazeera he isn’t enthusiastic about going again to Myanmar with out making certain citizenship.

“The Myanmar workforce didn’t say a phrase about whether or not we will probably be granted citizenship. They don’t even name us Rohingya. What assure is there that we are going to be secure if we return?”, stated Alom, who was one of many Rohingya refugees interviewed by the Myanmar delegation.

Alom stated life contained in the crowded refugee camp in Bangladesh was undignified however at the very least secure.

Noor Kolima, 31, one other interviewee, had the identical opinion. “My coronary heart aches for my homeland in Myanmar. After all, I wish to return. However the recollections of what we confronted there few years in the past hang-out me,” she instructed Al Jazeera.

“They [Myanmar team] have been asking numerous questions however didn’t give any reply to our ones. We now have questions too. We wish to ensure that we’re returning to a secure place,” she added.

Deutsche Welle reported that about 3,000 Rohingya had been shortlisted for the verification course of. Al Jazeera couldn’t independently confirm the determine.

Nay San, the activist, stated the verification course of was opaque and nobody was keen to hearken to the calls for of the Rohingya refugees.

“The junta has no plan to revive the citizenship and rights of the Rohingya. The junta has not said that returnees will probably be allowed to return to their authentic locations or given freedom of motion,” he stated.

“There are various different the reason why refugees can’t belief the junta, particularly because the genocide remains to be ongoing. Rohingya refugees who returned with out official permission have been arrested and sentenced, and those that flee to Malaysia are additionally being arrested and sentenced to as much as 5 years.”

The most important concern, he stated “is that there isn’t a assure that the cycle of violence in opposition to the Rohingya won’t repeat itself”.

Repatriation is ‘solely potential resolution’

Bangladesh’s Refugee, Aid and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) Mizanur Rahman instructed Al Jazeera the Myanmar delegation didn’t have the ability to commit on a potential repatriation date.

“They have been right here simply to confirm data of the Rohingya refugees who have been chosen for a pilot repatriation venture,” Rahman stated, “We have been instructed that the Myanmar international ministry will get again to us on this.”

Repatriation, he instructed Al Jazeera, is the “solely potential resolution” for the Rohingya refugees. “They’re their residents, they need to take them again.”

Dhaka has imposed vital restrictions on their motion and continued to push for his or her return.

A outstanding Rohingya diaspora group has additionally criticised the deliberate repatriation – the third since 2017 – saying the Myanmar army rulers had deliberate “token” repatriations to align with the genocide case resuming on the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ) on April 24.

“Taking again a couple of refugees, even whether it is lower than one % of the inhabitants, shall permit Myanmar to provide you with a counterargument underneath the very false pretence they’re honest concerning the return of refugees,” the Arakan Rohingya Nationwide Alliance (ARNA) stated in a press release.

In a signed assertion, about 200 civil society organisations condemned the UN’s participation within the course of.

The UNHCR has defended its determination to facilitate the Myanmar delegation, saying it “helps efforts that might result in the verification of all refugees and pave the way in which for eventual return”.

The company, nonetheless, reiterated that situations in Myanmar are presently unsafe for Rohingya.

Nay San stated all of the rights of Rohingya, together with citizenship rights, wanted to be restored earlier than their return to their authentic locations in Myanmar.

“Rohingya needs to be granted equal rights as different ethnic teams in Myanmar,” Nay San stated.

“If these rights are assured, all of the refugees will probably be keen to return.”

Faisal Mahmud contributed to this report from Dhaka