YANGON - Myanmar will repatriate at least 125 more Bangladeshi refugees who were rescued at sea by the navy in May, official said on Sunday.
A total of 501 migrants were handed over to Bangladesh in four rounds in July and August, with the remaining boat people in shelters at Taung Pyo in Myanmar's western Rakhine state.
The next round of deportations is expected on Aug 25, according to Khin Soe of the Rakhine immigration department.
"We will repatriate at least 125 people to Bangladesh. If Bangladesh agrees to take back more, the number will be more, as both sides have also already completed the nationality identification of the remaining 309 boat people," Khin Soe said by phone.
The government has come under pressure from nationalists in Rakhine state, including Buddhist monks, demanding the swift repatriation of two boatloads of migrants found at sea in May.
At least 102 more migrants thought to be from neighbouring Bangladesh were rescued on Bruer Island off Myanmar's southernmost town of Kawthoung. between June 30 and July 12, authority announced last month.
Some of the migrants reported being taken by force, while others said they were recruited to seek work in Malaysia said. The traffickers abandoned them on the island in early June, authorities said.