Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed to start the repatriation of Rohingya refugees next month, less than a week after UN investigators warned that a genocide against the Muslim minority was continuing.
More than 720,000 of Myanmar’s stateless Rohingya people fled a brutal military crackdown in August last year, taking shelter in crowded camps in Bangladesh and bringing with them harrowing tales of rape, murder and arson.
At a meeting of the Bangladeshi foreign secretary, Shahidul Haque, and the Burmese foreign secretary, Myint Thu, on Tuesday, the two countries drew up a “very concrete plan” to start repatriations.
“We have shown our political will, flexibility and accommodation in order to commence the repatriation at the earliest possible date,” Myint Thu told reporters. Authorities in Buddhist-majority Myanmar say more than 100 displaced Rohingyas have returned in recent months, but Bangladesh insists that the official process has not commenced.
