The government in Myanmar must build trust and ensure safety for Rohingya refugees, Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner has said following calls to suspend the community’s potential return to their homeland.

Bangladesh has been hosting and providing humanitarian support to 1.2 million Rohingya Muslims, most of whom fled violence and persecution in neighboring Myanmar during a military crackdown in 2017.

A leading human rights watchdog last week urged authorities in Bangladesh to halt plans to send Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, after a junta delegation visited Bangladeshi refugee camps in March to verify hundreds of potential returnees for a process ostensibly aimed at jumpstarting a stalled repatriation agreement.

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“Repatriation must be dignified, voluntary and sustainable — this is the stand of Bangladesh,” Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mizanur Rahman told Arab News.

“For this, the major part of responsibilities lies on the shoulders of Myanmar authorities…It’s the responsibility of the destination country to take their people in confidence and build an atmosphere of trust, safety, and dignity.”

Bangladesh is prepared for repatriation to begin, but “the question remains whether the Rohingya are ready for repatriation,” Rahman said, adding that the UN refugee agency will be involved to check their willingness if the process were to take place.

Human Rights Watch said voluntary, safe and dignified returns of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar “are not possible while the military junta is carrying out massacres around the country and apartheid in Rakhine State.”

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