Bangladesh on Tuesday conveyed its concerns to Myanmar and pointed out that Rohingyas are not ‘Bengalis’ as they have their own ethnic identities accepted by the Myanmar authority until recently.
Director General (Myanmar wing) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Md. Toufiq-ur-Rahman conveyed Dhaka's concerns to Ambassador Kyaw Soe Moe of Myanmar at the Ministry.
Referring to the latest press statement issued by the Myanmar Foreign Ministry on the Rohingya matter (dated 15 August), the DG mentioned that many elements of the statement are based on erroneous statistics including the number of the displaced Rohingya population.
Their data registered under the UN system reflects their accurate numbers.
The DG also requested the Ambassador on expediting the verification process of the displaced Rohingyas based on agreed bilateral instruments including taking into account of the children born in the camps, and the new arrivals, forced to leave Rakhine after 2017.
Bangladesh is in the process of registering them and the information of Rohingyas after the caseload of 828,824 would be shared with the Myanmar authorities in due course.
The DG requested to duly reflect these added information in the verification exercise.
Ambassador Soe Moe assured to convey Bangladesh’s concerns and observations to his capital and expressed his government’s commitment to expedite the verification process to begin the repatriation of the verified Rohingyas.
The DG reiterated that the only sustainable solution of the crisis lies in safe, dignified, and voluntary repatriation of the Rohingyas to Rakhine.
The United Council of Rohingya (UCR) has already categorically rejected and condemned the “misleading” press statement issued by the Myanmar Ministry of Foreign Affairs on August 15.
This statement is a calculated attempt to rewrite history, whitewash state-sponsored crimes, and evade the international community's calls for accountability, said the UCR in a statement.
Bangladesh PM's visit to India should take place much sooner: Dinesh Trivedi
Myanmar said Bangladesh sent 828,824 names of internally displaced persons to Myanmar, and as of 31st July, 2026, 426,545 names have been verified.
The verification found 308,797 people with evidence of having lived in Rakhine State, 4,241 who had committed acts of terrorism, and 113,507 people with no evidence of having lived in Rakhine State, Myanmar claimed.
“Therefore, based on these figures, we are concerned about the accusations that all those living in Bangladeshi camps are from Myanmar. Similarly, we strongly object to the accusations that boat refugees and those arriving in other countries under ethnic names that do not exist in Myanmar are from Myanmar," Myanmar said.
The UCR categorically rejected and condemned the misleading press statement.
“We address the Government of Myanmar's fallacies point by point: On Our Identity: We are Rohingya, not "Bengalis". Myanmar's continued refusal to acknowledge our ethnic identity is the root cause of our persecution. The term "Bengali" is a weapon of erasure. We are the indigenous Rohingya people of Rakhine State, with a documented history and culture spanning centuries and Myanmar government recognized the Rohingya as an indigenous ethnic minority of Myanmar.. We demand the world to restore our identity as Rohingya, and we reject any nomenclature designed to deny our existence and our rights to citizenship,” said the UCR.
The Myanmar government cynically blames the ARSA group for their plight. This is a complete inversion of reality, UCR said.
The Tatmadaw's "clearance operations" in 2016 and 2017 were a systematic campaign of Genocide, ethnic cleansing, meticulously documented by the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission.
"These operations involved the mass rape of women, the torching of over 300 villages, and the summary execution of entire families.
The isolated ARSA attacks were a desperate reaction to decades of apartheid, not the cause of our forced exodus. Myanmar's claim that their military acted in "defensive response" is an insult to the memory of the thousands massacred."
The UCR rejected the figures cited by Myanmar.
The statement claims 540,000 Bengalis fled to Bangladesh.
In reality, over 700,000 Rohingya fled across the border in a matter of weeks during the 2017 genocide, joining over 200,000 who had fled earlier waves of persecution in 1991-1992.
The claim that over 200,000 people still reside in Rakhine state is deeply misleading; these individuals are effectively interned in camps, denied freedom of movement, and stripped of all basic rights, said the UCR.
The international community and the UN have unequivocally stated that over one million Rohingya are now displaced, and the Myanmar government cannot dispute verified UN statistics.
They said Myanmar's verification process is a sham.
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, does not recognise the Rohingya as one of the country’s 135 lawful ethnic minorities, instead referring to them as Bengalis to imply they are natives from Bangladesh and are illegally settled in Myanmar.
Myanmar said it will continue working with Bangladesh to receive verified former residents when the security situation in Rakhine becomes more stable.
The Myanmar ministry also rejected claims that more than 1 million people were displaced from Rakhine, saying that more than 540,000 people crossed into Bangladesh after the violence in 2017 while more than 200,000 remained in northern Rakhine.
Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed to a two-year repatriation process in 2018. However, security in Myanmar worsened following an army takeover in 2021 that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering widespread armed resistance. Plans to repatriate the refugees have not succeeded.
The renewed chaos brought about by fighting between the Rakhine-based ethnic Arakan Army group and the military over control of the region in 2023 forced more refugees to flee toward Bangladesh and elsewhere in a desperate move to save their lives.
The Arakan Army controls much of Rakhine after capturing territory from the military in recent years.