B’desh, Myanmar ink Rohingya return deal

Yangon, November 23 

Bangladesh and Myanmar will start repatriating Rohingya refugees in two months, Dhaka said today, as global pressure mounts over the crisis that has sent more than half a million people fleeing across the border.

Around 620,000 Rohingya have poured into Bangladesh since August to what is now the world’s largest refugee camp, running from a Myanmar military crackdown that Washington said this week clearly constitutes “ethnic cleansing”.

The statement from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is the strongest US condemnation yet of the crackdown, accusing Myanmar’s security forces of perpetrating “horrendous atrocities” against the group.

Following talks between Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Dhaka’s Foreign Minister A H Mahmood Ali, and after weeks of tussling over the terms of repatriation, the two sides inked a deal in Naypyidaw.

In a brief statement, Dhaka said they had agreed to start returning the refugees to mainly Buddhist Myanmar in two months. It said that a working group would be set up within three weeks to agree the arrangements for the repatriation. “This is a primary step. (They) will take back (Rohingya). Now we have to start working,” Ali told reporters in Naypyidaw.

However, it remains unclear how many Rohingya will be allowed back and how long the process will take.

The signing of the deal came ahead of a highly-anticipated visit to both nations from Pope Francis, who has been outspoken about his sympathy for the plight of the Rohingya. — AFP