Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh receive identification for the first time
May 18, 2019
New Delhi, May 18 (ANI): United Nations confirmed that more than 270,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have been registered and provided with identity cards (ID) for the first time in an attempt to safeguard their right to voluntarily return home to Myanmar in the future. In a statement, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHRC) said that despite living in Myanmar for generations, the refugees were not able to acquire formal citizenship and documentation that comes with this, leaving them stateless and deprived of basic rights. All information on the documents is in English and Bengali and indicates Myanmar as the country of origin. The exercise also improved the accuracy of data on refugees in Bangladesh, which will help the authorities and humanitarian partners to better understand the needs of the refugee population. Some 740,000 Rohingya refugees reportedly fled a military crackdown in August 2017 to cross into Bangladesh where 300,000 members of the persecuted Muslim minority were already in camps.
