Rohingya free to return, Myanmar tells UN

SWITZERLAND: Myanmar has told the United Nations refugee agency that its top priority is to bring back Rohingya Muslims who have fled to Bangladesh, but much work is needed to ‘‘consolidate stability’’ in its troubled northern region of Rakhine.

Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed yesterday to set up a working group to plan the repatriation of more than half a million Rohingya refugees who have fled to Bangladesh to escape an army crackdown, the Bangladeshi foreign minister said.

‘‘Our next immediate priority is to bring back the refugees who have fled to Bangladesh,’’ Win Myat Aye, Myanmar’s Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, told the forum in Geneva.

‘‘The repatriation process can start any time for those who wish to return to Myanmar. Those who have been verified as refugees from this country will be accepted without any problem and with full assurance of their security and their access to human dignity.’’

The status of Rohingya remains unsettled in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they are denied citizenship and classified as illegal immigrants. Many refugees are gloomy about the prospects of going back, fearing they will not be able to furnish the documents they anticipate the government will demand to prove they have a right to return.

- Reuters