A Rohingya Muslim man who was one of four people resettled to Cambodia earlier this year in a controversial deal with Australia says he now wants to come back to Myanmar, according to media reports.
Australia paid $40 million to the Cambodian government to resettle the Rohingya man and three Iranians. They traveled to Phnom Penh in June from the island of Nauru, where Australia has sent many of the “boat people” trying to reach its shores.
Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak told the Cambodia Daily that the Rohingya man had a case of “homesickness.”
But that explanation seems a little at odds with reality, as many Rohingya have tried to flee their homes and seek shelter in other countries because of the persecution they face here.
That’s not something you feel homesick for. Indeed, it’s probably why he left in the first place.
The man, who has not been named, had attempted to reach Australia by sea, travelling the same trafficking routes as thousands of other Rohingya.
“He misses his homeland, so he asked to go back to Burma,” Sopheak said. “He is the only one who wants to go back,” he added. “He wants to go back home because he is alone. He has no mother or father or brother or sister, but the Iranians are three.”
But the question remains: will Myanmar’s government allow him to return?
If the Rohingya, most of whom live in Rakhine state, are denied citizenship, denied the right to vote and denied freedom of movement, arranging his return trip home may prove something of a bureaucratic nightmare.
Photo / Coconuts Yangon
