Rohingya who fled Myanmar a second time are certain: "We can’t go back"
While repatriation plans inch forward, older refugees remember past returns gone wrong Kaamil Ahmed ( Freelance journalist and regular IRIN contributor) Patrick Brown/UNICEF COX’S BAZAR:: Noor Mohammed fled to Bangladesh in 1991, only to return to his home in Myanmar a year later, lured by a promise of safety. Now, he’s back in Bangladesh, one of more than 655,000 Rohingya driven out of Rakhine State in last year’s wave of bloodshed. This time, he’s determined to stay. Bangladesh and Myanmar this week announced a two-year timeline to return Rohingya refugees to Rakhine. Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said repatriations could begin next week, on 23 January. In a statement posted on its Facebook account, the ministry said it had “verified” a list of 1,258 people who could be included in an initial round. But refugees like Mohammed say they have no intention of returning. "We can't go back,” Mohammed told IRIN. “There's so much pain for us there