ROHINGYA REPATRIATION Talks for physical arrangements to begin today

Bangladesh and Myanmar are all set to start today the first meeting of the joint working group formed to supervise repatriation of Rohingyas who have fled violence in Rakhine State since October 2017 as Myanmar nationals continued entering Bangladesh. 
The meeting will be held in Myanmar’s new capital Naypyitaw with an aim to sign a bilateral instrument on physical arrangements for laying a process of repatriation by January 22.
The 15-member Bangladesh delegation led by foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque reached Naypyitaw
on Sunday for the talks. Myanmar foreign ministry’s permanent secretary Myint Thu is expected to lead a 15-member delegation on the other side of the table.
The two sides were prepared ‘to lengthen the meeting, if situation demands, till Tuesday,’ a Bangladesh delegation member told New Age on Sunday. 
The military-controlled Myanmar government agreed, according to the November 23 ‘arrangement’ to take back over 7,40,000 Rohingyas who crossed over the border since October 2017. 
Bangladesh delegation members include senior officials from the Prime Minister’s Office, home ministry, Border Guard Bangladesh, Armed Forces Division, Department of Immigration and Passport, disaster management and relief ministry and planning ministry. 
The joint working group, according to its terms-of-reference agreed between the two sides on December 19, 2017, will develop physical arrangement for safe and voluntary return, which would include mechanism of verification, time schedule, transport and logistics arrangements, reception procedures, communication etc. to commence the repatriation process within the stipulated timeframe mentioned in the ‘arrangement’ deal. 
The two countries agreed for return, resettlement and reintegration process of displaced Myanmar residents as envisaged in the ‘Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State’ signed by foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali and Kyaw Tint Swe, Myanmar union minister at the State Counsellor’s Office on November 23. 
In the ‘arrangement’ the government has agreed, at the request of Myanmar, to accept the principles of verification of nationalities of Rohingyas described in the 1992 ‘statement’ for beginning repatriation of Rohingyas who entered Bangladesh from Rakhine State only after October 9, 2016.
The two countries agreed that the process of return should commence within two months from November 23, 2017 and ‘be completed within a reasonable time from the date the first batch of returnees is received’. 
At least 10 Rohingya families from Aley Chaung of Buthidaung fled to Bangladesh on Saturday as Myanmar authorities confiscated their lands and scores of Rohingyas were considering to flee from Rakhine to Bangladesh, according to sources in Rakhine State. 
The UN Refugee Agency and its partners have started to relocate more than 9,400 Rohingyas, living in border at bordering Naikhyanchari upazila under Bandarban district for past few months, to Kutupalang camps in Cox’s Bazar to enable them to more easily access assistance and basic services, according to a UNHCR press release issued on Sunday. 
The first group of some 199 individuals of 47 families was moved to the Kutupalang camps on Sunday. 
These families were living in isolated hard to reach areas near the border, UNHCR spokesperson Caroline Gluck said, adding that helping them move to the camps would mean that ‘we can provide a full range of assistance.’
The government has so far registered over 9,85,000 Rohingyas as the members of minority community in Rakhine State of Myanmar, officials in Cox’s Bazar said.
Over 6,55,500 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing, between August 25, 2017 and January 7, 2018. Several international authorities denounced the operations as genocide. 
The ongoing Rohingya influx took the total number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to over 10,74,000 till January 7, according to estimates by UN agencies

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net