China denies money offer for refugees to return

08 March 2019
China denies money offer for refugees to return
A young Rohingya refugee spreads out fire wood for drying on the roof of a shack, next to a solar panel, at the Hakimpara refugee camp in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district on November 18, 2018. Photo: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP

China has not offered Rohingya refugees money to repatriate to Myanmar, a Chinese Embassy attaché in Dhaka told BenarNews, after the news outlet reported that a delegation of officials from Beijing had promised refugee families up to U.S. $6,000 each if they returned to Rakhine state, according to RFA.

The embassy official was asked to comment on a video posted online by a Rohingya NGO that showed Chinese delegates meeting with refugees in southeastern Bangladesh, and offering families money to return to their homeland. 

Bangladeshi officials and Rohingya leaders confirmed the meeting and the offer to BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, on Tuesday the report said.