Diplomatic Correspondent :
Myanmar and Bangladesh have formed a joint working group (JWG) to oversee the repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Rakhine.
The two countries agreed to set up a 30-member working group during a four-hour meeting held at the State Guest House ‘Meghna’ in Dhaka on Tuesday.
Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Huq led a nine-member Bangladesh team while Permanent Secretary of Myanmar Foreign Ministry Myint Thu led a six-member team during the meeting.
From the Bangladesh side, the JWG will be led by Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Huq, while Permanent Secretary of Myanmar Foreign Ministry Myint Thu will lead the Myanmar side, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali told reporters after the meeting. Although the repatriation was due to start around January 21 under an agreement reached last month between the two countries, but a Bangladesh foreign ministry official who attended Tuesday’s meeting said it would be delayed by a couple of weeks or so.
An agreed minute was signed after the four-hour long meeting in presence of the Bangladesh foreign minister.
The agreed Terms of Reference (TOR) mandates the JWG to undertake all necessary measures to start the safe and voluntary return, resettlement and reintegration process of displaced Myanmar residents as envisaged in the “Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State” signed by the Foreign Minister A H Mahmood Ali, MP and U Kyaw Tint Swe, Union Minister at the State Counsellor’s Office on November 23, 2017 in Nay Pyi Taw.
According to the TOR, the JWG will develop physical arrangement for return, which would include mechanism of verification, time schedule, transport and logistic arrangements, reception procedures and communication to commence the repatriation process within the stipulated time frame mentioned in the “Arrangement”, according to a press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The JWG will assess the process and report to the respective governments quarterly.
The JWG shall involve assistance of the UNHCR and other mandated UN agencies and interested international partners in various stages of repatriation. The JWG shall ensure commencement of repatriation within two months of the signing of the “Arrangement”.
According to the repatriation deal signed between Dhaka and Naypyitaw on November 23, Myanmar has agreed to take necessary measures to halt the outflow of its residents to Bangladesh, restore normalcy in northern Rakhine and encourage those who had left Myanmar to return voluntarily and safely to their own households and original places of residence or to a safe place of their choice.
More than 630,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh since Myanmar’s military launched a crackdown on them in August.
