Since their escape, the Rohingya have been crammed into the world's largest refugee camp in Bangladesh, but Myanmar's government is under pressure to take them back. A high-level delegation from Myanmar visited Bangladesh's southern Cox's Bazar district on Saturday to persuade the Rohingya they should return to Rakhine state. But so far the refugees have refused, demanding guarantees about their safety and for them to be granted citizenship.
Dr Ronan Lee, visiting scholar at the International State Crime Initiative at Queen Mary, spoke to Al Jazeera about whether the Rohingya should trust the Myanmar government. He said: “They are 100 per cent right not to trust the Myanmar government. Myanmar’s government on a number of occasions over the last 50 years violently forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya out of the country and then when there is international pressure for them to be returned they’ve allowed a fraction to return, usually with diminished rights.”
Watch the interview here.