"We are right now ready to receive... we are completely ready to welcome them according to the agreement," Kyaw Tin, Minister of International Cooperation told reporters in Naypyidaw, Myanmar's capital. "We won't go there if they try to send us back... kill us here, because we won't go. If we go back, the Burmese (Myanmar) will kill us," 12-year-old Mohammad Ayas said at a camp at Cox's Bazar.Others said repatriation was a pipe dream while people were still trickling into the camps.Mohammad Amin, who arrived just last week, described villages being set ablaze and women assaulted.Backing up his claim, a senior Bangladeshi border guard at Cox's Bazar said a "big fire" was seen raging late Monday in an abandoned village in Rakhine.It is believed the homes ablaze overnight belonged to Rohingya, the official said on condition of anonymity. The border region is controlled by Myanmar's forces, he added.Another border official said he heard several gunshots before flames were seen leaping from the village.Footage of the blaze quickly spread among Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh through social media, with many quick to blame Myanmar's security forces. "The fire is designed to destroy the last remaining traces of Rohingya homes so that none of us can return to our villages," activist Rafique bin Habib told AFP.He said without homes, those Rohingya who were repatriated would be denied access to their ancestral lands and forced to live in displacement camps.Bangladesh, one of Asia's poorest countries, has been besieged by an influx of Rohingya since communal violence flared in 2016.It has tried to use the global outcry over the crisis to press Myanmar into taking back the refugees before they settle.

Source: Egypt Today January 23, 2018 12:56 UTC