Dhaka: Uncertainty over whether Bangladesh will start sending Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar has caused fear and confusion in refugee camps.
Authorities had said they planned to move the first group on Thursday but it is unclear whether they will go ahead.
The UN and rights groups have said no-one should be forced to return, as the situation in Myanmar is not safe.
More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims and others have fled to Bangladesh over the past year.
They were escaping violence and a military operation in western Rakhine state.
The UN has said senior Myanmar officials should be investigated and tried for genocide over the operation, which the army says was targeting militants.
About 300,000 Rohingya had already fled Myanmar in earlier waves of communal violence.
The refugees are mostly living in basic conditions in sprawling camps near the Bangladeshi border town of Cox’s Bazar.
Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed they should gradually be returned to Myanmar.
Thousands of people have been approved for return by Myanmar and a large security presence has moved into the camp this week.
But this has led to panic among the refugees, many of whom experienced violence in Myanmar, lost family members or saw their homes burned.
There are reports of people fleeing the camps and hiding if they suspect they have been selected for return.
Rights group Fortify Rights said it had a report of one elderly man attempting to take his own life when he heard he was on the list.
“I don’t want to go back to Myanmar,” the 60-year old told the group. “I would rather die or be killed than be sent back.”
Another man told the group: “When I think about my homeland, I think of fire and massacres. I won’t go back.”
The first group were due to go on Thursday but Mohammad Abul Kalam, Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner, told AFP that none of the 50 families spoken to so far “expressed their willingness to go back under the present circumstances”.
“None feels safe to go back now. We cannot force them to go back against their will,” he said.
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