A general view shows a Rohingya refugee camp at Teknuf in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Photo: Monirul Alam/EPA

Myanmar has rejected an offer by China to facilitate a visit by a group of Rohingya refugees to its Rakhine state to investigate the situation there ahead of a possible repatriation from temporary camps across the border in Bangladesh, RFA reported.

Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told reporters on Wednesday that Myanmar’s government had dismissed the proposal, originally floated by Li Jiming, the new Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh, during talks with Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar last month and formally discussed during a meeting last week between Myanmar, Chinese and Bangladeshi delegates on the side-lines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

On Thursday, Aung Ko, the director general of the political affairs department for Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told RFA’s Myanmar Service his government had never agreed to the offer and is waiting for Bangladesh to “allow” the refugees to return to the border, whereupon they will be accepted following individual assessments.