Bangladesh rejects Myanmar’s ‘Bengali’ label for Rohingyas

Bangladesh has strongly rejected Myanmar’s continued portrayal of the Rohingya refugees sheltering in Bangladesh as “Bengalis”, saying the community has its own distinct ethnic identity.

The Foreign Ministry conveyed Dhaka’s position during a meeting between its Director General for Myanmar Affairs Md Toufiq-ur-Rahman and Myanmar Ambassador to Bangladesh U Kyaw Soe Moe on Monday. The ministry issued a statement on Tuesday outlining the discussion.

Bangladesh also raised concerns over what it described as inaccurate figures on the number of displaced Rohingyas in Myanmar’s August 15 statement.

Toufiq-ur-Rahman said UN-registered data accurately reflects the number of displaced Rohingyas and urged Myanmar to expedite the verification process under the existing bilateral arrangements.

He also called for the verification to include children born in Rohingya camps in Bangladesh and people who fled Rakhine after 2017.

The Myanmar ambassador assured Bangladesh that Dhaka’s concerns and observations would be conveyed to his government. He also reiterated Myanmar’s commitment to completing the verification process and beginning the repatriation of verified Rohingyas.

Bangladesh reiterated that the only sustainable solution to the crisis is the safe, voluntary and dignified return of Rohingyas to their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

In its August 15 statement, Myanmar said Bangladesh had submitted a list of 828,824 people and that 426,545 had been verified as of July 31. Of those, Myanmar said 308,797 had been identified as residents of Rakhine, while 4,241 were classified as having links to terrorist activities and no evidence of residence in Rakhine was found for 113,507 people.

Myanmar also disputed Bangladesh’s claim that more than one million people had been displaced from Rakhine after 2017, saying more than 540,000 people had entered Bangladesh while others remained in northern Rakhine.

The Myanmar statement repeatedly referred to the Rohingya as “Bengalis” rather than recognising them as one of Myanmar’s 135 officially recognised ethnic groups—a position Bangladesh has firmly rejected.