In a major breakthrough in bilateral relations, Myanmar has agreed to take back Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh’s camps within two months.The decision was conveyed at the Foreign Secretary-level meting between Bangladesh and Myanmar held in the city on Sunday. “Myanmar will start the process of taking back 2,415 Rohingyas stranded in two camps in Cox’s Bazar,” foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque told reporters after the meeting. He said, after 2005, it is the first time Myanmar has agreed to take back Rohingyas from Bangladesh. “The Rohingya refugees are finally going back home as a working group will sit for talks in two months time to develop a timeline for repatriation,” he added.In the daylong meeting, Bangladesh pressed for repatriation of the 32,000 documented Rohingya refugees.Deputy Foreign Minister of Myanmar U Thant Kyaw, who is on a five-day official visit, led the seven-member Myanmar delegation while Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque headed the 10-member Bangladesh side at the meet known as ‘Foreign Office Consultation’.At the meeting both sides agreed on a number of measures to carry forward the bilateral relations. Bangladesh gave shelter to thousands of refugees who fled the Rakhine province after sectarian clashes over the years. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, put the number in Bangladesh at over 200,000 with 30,000 documented refugees living in two government-run camps – the Kutupalong and Nayapara – within 2 kilometres of the Myanmar border. Some estimates suggest more than 500,000 are living outside the camps in Bangladesh. According to the foreign ministry, Myanmar took back more than 200,000 of their nationals between 1991 and 2005. The process has since stalled and Myanmar even declined to recognise those living inside Bangladesh as its nationals.
