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Myanmar: 200,000 Rohingyas in Bangladesh yet to be enrolled as refugees

DHAKA, Jun 20, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- About 200,000 Rohingyas living in southeastern Bangladesh are yet to be enrolled as refugees officially, The Daily Star reported Tuesday.
The refugees in southeastern Cox's Bazar and Bandarban districts are among those who were displaced from Myanmar in last 15 years.

The district administration sources said as many as 250,877 Rohingyas came to Bangladesh from Myanmar during the 1991-92 period.

Of them, 230,000 refugees returned to their homeland Myanmar under the joint supervision of the Bangladeshi government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) from September 1992 till now.

But more than 100,000 Rohingyas illegally entered the Bangladeshi territory crossing the Naf and Nikkongchari border. They are yet to be officially enlisted as refugees. They are now living in different parts of Cox's Bazar and Bandarban.

State Minister for Communications Salauddin Ahmed MP, in a meeting of the district law and order committee held on Dec. 29 last year asked government officials to enroll the unlisted Rohingyas so that they can be repatriated to their homeland in due time.

The district administration has conducted a survey of the Rohingyas who are still out of the official list and living in different areas of Cox's Bazar last year.

Cox's Bazar Deputy Commissioner Md Habibur Rahman was quoted by the daily as saying that a total of 50,230 Rohingyas are living in Cox's Bazar district illegally. He said that they are now living at Teknaf, Ukhiya, Ramu, Chakoria, Pekua and Moheskhali subdistricts.