Myanmar has finally acknowledged that 180,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are eligible to return home. It’s a small step in the right direction, but not nearly enough to resolve a humanitarian crisis that has dragged on for nearly eight years. The burden of sheltering more than one million displaced people can no longer fall solely on Bangladesh. Myanmar must take responsibility for its citizens—and Bangladesh must demand it.
These 180,000 names were verified from a list of 800,000 Rohingya submitted to Myanmar between 2018 and 2020. That list represents just a portion of the Rohingya population driven out by the 2017 military crackdown in Rakhine State—violence so severe the United Nations labeled it ethnic cleansing. Many more have continued to flee worsening hunger and insecurity, with around 70,000 crossing into Bangladesh in 2023 alone.
The camps in southeastern Bangladesh, now the world’s largest refugee settlement, are stretched to their limits. The strain on resources, security, and host communities is unsustainable. While Bangladesh has shown compassion, its patience—and capacity—are wearing thin. It is time for the international community to support a real repatriation push, and for Myanmar to do more than make promises.
Myanmar’s agreement to expedite the verification process for the remaining names is not enough. Previous repatriation attempts in 2018 and 2019 collapsed when refugees, fearing persecution and denied citizenship, refused to return. That fear remains. No refugee should be forced back into statelessness or danger.
The Rohingya must be allowed to return with full rights, citizenship, and dignity. Anything less is a continuation of the injustice that forced them to flee in the first place. One refugee put it clearly: “Myanmar must take all of us back — not just a selected few,” Shafiqur Rahman told Reuters.
If Myanmar continues to stall, Bangladesh must press harder—through diplomacy, regional alliances, and global platforms. The longer this crisis is allowed to stagnate, the heavier the burden becomes on Bangladesh and the more entrenched the suffering of the Rohingya grows.
The time for half-measures is over. Myanmar must act. And Bangladesh must ensure that it does.