Myanmar minister hopes to visit Rohingya in refugee camps

BANGKOK – The Myanmar state minister overseeing the planned repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh says he hopes to talk to them when he makes a visit there this month.

Social Welfare Minister Win Myat will be the first Myanmar cabinet minister to visit the camps since the refugee flow began in August last year in response to a brutal counterinsurgency campaign.

Win Myat told The Associated Press in a phone interview Thursday that he will meet with officials working on repatriation during his April 11-12 visit. He said he has also asked to meet refuges, but that will depend on Bangladesh making arrangements.

Win Myat is seeking to convince the Rohingya that it is safe to return.