The Rohingya Muslim minority will begin to leave Bangladesh, with Myanmar agreeing to accept 1,500 a week with the goal of taking back more than 700,000 refugees within two years. About 650,000 Rohingyas have fled into Bangladesh since last August, when Myanmar forces launched a scorched earth campaign against Rohingya villages in Rakhine state in response to attacks on Myanmar police outposts by Rohingya militants. Though Myanmar’s army claimed it was a clearance operation against the terrorists, the United Nations, United States and others have said the operations were “ethnic cleansing” to remove the Rohingya from the country. While the Muslim minority from Myanmar’s western Rakhine state have previously fled to Bangladesh in the tens of thousands after operations by the Burmese military in 1978, 1991 and with increasing frequency over the past 10 years, the most recent influx, and corresponding changes, have been far more intense. "We should be able to start the process in the coming days," he said, but added Myanmar's stated deadline of next week for starting Rohingya repatriation was "not possible". The United Nations and human rights groups have urged the Myanmar government to ensure safe and voluntary return of the refugees, while many are concerned whether the Rohingya would want to return to Myanmar in the first place. State-run media in Myanmar reported Monday the 124-acre Hla Po Khaung camp will accommodate about 30,000 people in 625 buildings and that at least 100 buildings are to be completed by the end of the month.
Win Myat Aye, Myanmar's minister of social welfare, relief and resettlement, announced that his country would begin repatriating Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh beginning on January 23, 2018. Burmese officials also promised that a newly built camp for repatriated refugees would also be finished by that date.