About 700,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims have fled to squalid camps in neighbouring Bangladesh since last August, when Myanmar’s army led a brutal crackdown following insurgent attacks on security posts.
Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in November to begin repatriating the Rohingya, but the refugees expressed concern that they would be forced to return and would face unsafe conditions in Myanmar if the process was not monitored by international aid groups.
The government said in a statement that it initialed a memorandum of understanding with the UN refugee and development agencies for their assistance so that verified displaced people “can return voluntarily in safety and dignity”.
The UN said in a separate statement that conditions in Myanmar were not yet appropriate for the return but that the agreement would support government efforts to improve the situation. It said the agreement, expected to be formally signed within a week, would provide a framework for the two agencies to be given access to Rakhine state, which has not been allowed since the violence broke out in August. That would allow UN staff to assess the situation and provide information to refugees about the conditions there to help them decide whether to return.
Myanmar’s security forces have been accused of rape, killing, torture and the burning of the homes of Rohingya villagers. The UN and the US have described the army crackdown as “ethnic cleansing”.
Myanmar has said it will only allow refugees with identity documents — which most Rohingya lack — to return.
Rohingya Muslims face official and social discrimination in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, which denies most of them citizenship and basic rights by not recognising them as one of the country’s indigenous ethnic group.
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