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 camps across the border in Bangladesh, according to RFA.

Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told reporters 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, the agency reported.

The issue was discussed during a meeting last week between Myanmar, Chinese and Bangladeshi delegates on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

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 after individual assessments.