A BANGLADESHI minister has given a list of 8032 Rohingya refugees to his counterpart in Myanmar to begin repatriations of the Muslim minority under a November agreement between the two countries.

Bangladesh’s home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said the list contained the members of 1673 Rohingya families. He did not explain how the names had been chosen.

About 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled army-led violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar since last August and are living in refugee camps in Bangladesh, which has struggled to cope.

The two countries agreed to begin the repatriations last month, but they were delayed by concerns among aid workers and Rohingya that they would be forced to return to unsafe conditions in Burma.

Khan said he presented the list to Lieutenant General Kyaw Swe, who is visiting Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, to discuss the repatriations and other border issues.

“The Myanmar side cordially accepted the list, and they sought our help to make it happen,” Khan said.

He said officials in Myanmar would choose 6500 people next Tuesday to be sent back in the first of three phases, but did not say when the repatriation would start or give any indication of the overall timeframe.