COX’S BAZAR – COX’Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar living in dozens of camps in Bangladesh marked the eighth anniversary of their mass exodus, demanding safe return to their previous home in Rakhine state.

The refugees gathered Monday in an open field at a camp in Kutupalong, in the Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh, carrying banners and festoons reading “No more refugee life” and “Repatriation the ultimate solution.”

The day was marked as “Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day.”

A separate three-day conference began Sunday in Cox’s Bazar. International dignitaries, United Nations representatives, diplomats and Bangladesh’s interim government are set to discuss supporting refugees with food and other amenities and how to speed up the repatriation process.

Bangladesh’s interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, is expected to speak Monday.

While Bangladesh and the U.N. have long campaigned for the safe return of more than 1 million refugees, the situation inside Myanmar has remained volatile, especially in their previous home in Rakhine state. In Bangladesh, Rohingya refugees face challenges including aid cuts by donors.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims began leaving Myanmar for Bangladesh on Aug. 25, 2017. They traveled by foot and boats during shelling, indiscriminate killings and other violence in Rakhine state, which has been captured by the Arakan Army insurgent group that has battled against Myanmar government soldiers.

The refugees protesting Monday at Kutupalong, one of the largest of more than 30 Rohingya camps, expressed frustration over the rise of Arakan Army and the situation contributing to uncertainty over their return.

“We are here today because the Myanmar military and the Arakan army committed genocide against our community. We are here today to remember the people who lost their lives and who sacrificed their lives for being Muslim,” Nur Aziz, 19, told The Associated Press.

“We want to go back to our country with equal rights like other ethnic groups in Myanmar. The rights they are enjoying in Myanmar as citizens of the country, we too want to enjoy the same rights,” he said.

Myanmar launched a brutal crackdown in August 2017 following insurgent attacks on guard posts in Rakhine state. The scale, organization and ferocity of the operation led to accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide from the international community, including the U.N.

The Bangladesh government, which was led at the time by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, ordered the border to be opened, eventually allowing more than 700,000 refugees to take shelter in the Muslim-majority nation. The influx was in addition to more than 300,000 refugees who already had lived in Bangladesh for decades in the wake of previous violence perpetrated by Myanmar’s military.

Since 2017, Bangladesh has attempted at least twice to send back the refugees and has urged the international community to build pressure on Myanmar’s government to establish a peaceful environment that could assist their repatriation. The governments under Hasina and Yunus also have sought repatriation support from China.

___

Julhas Alam contributed from Dhaka, Bangladesh.