Tens of hundreds of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar dwelling in dozens of camps in Bangladesh marked the eighth anniversary of their mass exodus, demanding protected return to their earlier residence in Rakhine state.
The refugees gathered on Monday (August 25, 2025) in an open subject at a camp in Kutupalong, in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh, carrying banners and festoons studying “No more refugee life” and “Repatriation the ultimate solution.”
The day was marked as “Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day.”
A separate three-day conference started on Sunday in Cox’s Bazar. International dignitaries, United Nations representatives, diplomats and Bangladesh’s interim authorities are set to debate supporting refugees with meals and different facilities and the right way to velocity up the repatriation course of.
Bangladesh’s interim chief, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, is predicted to talk on Monday.
While Bangladesh and the U.N. have lengthy campaigned for the protected return of greater than 1 million refugees, the state of affairs inside Myanmar has remained risky, particularly in their earlier residence in Rakhine state. In Bangladesh, Rohingya refugees face challenges together with help cuts by donors.
Hundreds of hundreds of Rohingya Muslims started leaving Myanmar for Bangladesh on Aug. 25, 2017. They traveled by foot and boats throughout shelling, indiscriminate killings and different violence in Rakhine state, which has been captured by the Arakan Army rebel group that has battled towards Myanmar authorities troopers.
The refugees protesting on Monday at Kutupalong, one of the biggest of greater than 30 Rohingya camps, expressed frustration over the rise of Arakan Army and the state of affairs contributing to uncertainty over their return.
“We are here today because the Myanmar military and the Arakan army committed genocide against our community. We are here today to remember the people who lost their lives and who sacrificed their lives for being Muslim,” Nur Aziz, 19, advised The Associated Press.
“We want to go back to our country with equal rights like other ethnic groups in Myanmar. The rights they are enjoying in Myanmar as citizens of the country, we too want to enjoy the same rights,” he mentioned.
Myanmar launched a brutal crackdown in August 2017 following rebel assaults on guard posts in Rakhine state. The scale, group and ferocity of the operation led to accusations of ethnic cleaning and genocide from the worldwide group, together with the U.N.
The Bangladesh authorities, which was led on the time by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, ordered the border to be opened, ultimately permitting greater than 700,000 refugees to take shelter in the Muslim-majority nation. The inflow was in addition to greater than 300,000 refugees who already had lived in Bangladesh for many years in the wake of earlier violence perpetrated by Myanmar’s army.
Since 2017, Bangladesh has tried a minimum of twice to ship again the refugees and has urged the worldwide group to construct stress on Myanmar’s authorities to ascertain a peaceable atmosphere that would help their repatriation. The governments below Hasina and Yunus even have sought repatriation help from China.
