People walk through a Rohingya refugee camp in the Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh, on March 9, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)DHAKA - Bangladesh is preparing to start safe and voluntary repatriation of Rohingya to their homeland Myanmar later this year, initially with around 1,000 people, a senior government official has said.

"As part of confidence-building measures, a Bangladesh delegation is set to visit Myanmar next month while a team from Myanmar will be here soon to talk to the refugees," Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen told journalists on Sunday.

We've prepared a list of over 3,000 Rohingya from whom we expect to send back 1,000 to Myanmar initially in or around December.

Masud Bin Momen, Bangladeshi foreign secretary

"We've prepared a list of over 3,000 Rohingya from whom we expect to send back 1,000 to Myanmar initially in or around December," he said.

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He said the reduction of assistance for Rohingya, whose population is growing with around 30,000 newborns every year, is compounding the crisis in the refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Against this backdrop, Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently urged the international community to continue providing necessary humanitarian support till the Rohingya' sustainable repatriation.

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More than 1 million displaced Rohingya from Myanmar are living in Cox's Bazar, some 300 km southeast of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.