Bangladesh Prioritizes Repatriation, Refuses Long-Term Stay for Newly Arrived Rohingya
According to statements by RRRC Chief Mizanur Rahman, the Bangladesh government has decided that newly arrived Rohingya fleeing forced conscription and pressure from the Arakan Army/ULA in Rakhine will no longer be granted long-term stay in Cox’s Bazar refugee camps. Instead, authorities will prioritize their repatriation.
Out of the roughly 150,000 new arrivals, about 130,000 have been placed under a government-approved limited registration system. Unlike earlier refugees, authorities are no longer collecting iris scans or facial recognition data—only fingerprints are being taken and stored in the FDMN system.
Authorities and aid agencies classify this system as a restricted form of registration. It is designed only for providing basic services and does not grant any long-term rights.
The RRRC chief stated that new arrivals will be treated strictly as “temporary entrants” and should not be counted among the official Rohingya refugee population. He emphasized that the newly arrived Rohingya are not a group meant to be settled but are people who “must return.”
UNHCR has requested over 2,000 temporary shelters for the new arrivals, but according to an official from the Cox’s Bazar sub-office, authorities have not yet responded.
Government officials have made it clear that they aim to repatriate all new arrivals as quickly as possible. Apart from assigning temporary shelter designations, they will not issue any other forms of approval or recognition.
