Myanmar and UN agencies have signed an initial agreement that could see the return of some of the 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled the country. But there's speculation that the framework deal is a "convenient" fudge.
Muslim refugees wait for food aid at Thankhali refugee camp in BangladeshImage: Getty Images/AFP/M. Uz Zaman
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Myanmar and two UN agencies inked a deal on Wednesday aimed at establishing a framework for the repatriation of refugees currently crowded into Bangladeshi refugee camps.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) said the deal gives them access to Rakhine state. Most of the refugees expelled amid a brutal crackdown by security forces were from Rakhine.
The United Nations resident humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, Knut Ostby, confirmed the news on Twitter.
Security forces in Myanmar are accused of a spate of atrocities, including killing, torture, rape and the burning of homes in western Rakhine's Rohingya villages. Having fled to neighboring Bangladesh, many refugees feared their lives would be at risk when Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement in November to repatriate them.
Ostby said the "framework of cooperation" agreement was an important step to resolve the crisis.
"There is a lot of work to be done. This task should not be underestimated," Ostby said. "We are talking about approximately 700,000 people who don't only have to return, but the conditions have to be right for them to return ... in terms of their identity in society, in terms of their safety and also in terms of services, livelihoods, a place to live, infrastructure."
However, some rights groups claimed that the past behavior of Myanmar's authorities when it came to the Rohingya people did not augur well — and could be a convenient short-term fudge to gain international goodwill.
The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh
Rohingya Muslims fleeing from fighting in Myanmar face attempts by Bangladesh authorities to send them home despite a UN appeal that they be allowed to stay. The Rohingya are classed as illegal immigrants in Myanmar.
Seeking refuge
A series of coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar security forces in the north of Myanmar's Rakhine State triggered a crackdown by Myanmar forces that has sent a stream of Rohingya villagers fleeing to Bangladesh. About 400 people have been killed in the clashes in Buddist-majority Myanmar.
Mass evacuation
A Rohingya man passes a child though a barbed wire border fence on the border with Bangladesh. Myanmar accused the Rohingya insurgents of torching seven villages, one outpost, and two parts of Maungdaw town.
Image: Getty Images/R.Asad
Buddhist refugees on their way south
The crackdown by Myanmar forces also sparked a mass evacuation of thousands of Buddhist residents of the area. Tension has long been high between the Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists, leading to bloody rioting in 2012. Rakhine Buddhists, feeling unsafe after the upsurge in fighting, are moving south to the state's capital, Sittwe, where Buddhists are a majority and have greater security.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
No entry
Bangladeshi border guards block people from crossing. Thousands of Rohingyas have sought to flee the fighting to Bangladesh, with nearly 30,000 crossing over. Bangladesh, which is already host to more than 400,000 Rohingya said it will not accept any more refugees, despite an appeal by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for Dhaka to allow Rohingya to seek safety.
Image: Reuters/M. Ponir Hossain
Humanitarian crisis
An aid worker with an international agency in Bangladesh reports: "What we're seeing is that many Rohingya people are sick. This is because they got stuck in the border before they could enter. It's mostly women and children." The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and classified as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M.Alam
Not welcome in Bangladesh
A group of Rohingya refugees takes shelter at the Kutuupalang makeshift refugee camp in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. Bangladesh's unwillingness to host more refugees became apparent in the government's plan to relocate Rohingyas to a remote island that is mostly flooded during the monsoon season.
Image: Reuters/M. P. Hossain
Stranded in no man's land
Rohingya children make their way through water as they try to come to the Bangladesh side from no man's land. Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees are believed to be stuck at the border to Bangladesh.
Image: Reuters/M. Ponir Hossain
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"How will the Burmese government guarantee these people will not face again persecution?" Kyaw Win, executive director of Burma Human Rights Network, was cited as saying by the Associated Press. "It is very politically convenient for the Burmese government to sign this agreement, and also never commit."
The largely Muslim Rohingya people have been subject to decades of discrimination and often outright hostility in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. They were denied citizenship by a 1982 law that excluded them from recognition as one of Myanmar's official ethnic groups.
