Rohingya crisis: Bangladesh sending names to Myanmar for joint working group in a week

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali has said Bangladesh will put forward the names for forming the joint working group with Myanmar on Rohingya repatriation “in a week”.

"Our main objective is to send back those who came to Bangladesh as refugees,” he said when asked at a press briefing in Dhaka on Tuesday.

“I hope we’ll be able to start the work by November,” he said.

Both sides agreed to form a joint working group to start the repatriation process on Oct 2 when Aung San Suu Kyi’s minister visited Bangladesh amid international pressure.

Over half a million Rohingya Muslims have fled ethnic cleansing in Rakhine State in a month since Aug 25. The Myanmar military and local vigilantes have reportedly burnt down the villages where they used to live.

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal also visited Myanmar and discussed the issue.

Asked about the outcomes of the meeting, the foreign minister only said: “We are on the right track”.

He said the visit had taken the diplomatic process to the next step. “We hope that the joint working group will be formed soon.”

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has also called Myanmar army chief and urged him to start the repatriation process as per the 1992 agreement when Bangladesh could send back nearly 250,000 Rohingyas who have been living in its territory for decades.

The foreign minister, who was in the foreign service at the time, led the negotiation in 1992. He, during his meeting with the Myanmar minister, insisted that the agreement is “not realistic” in the present context as Myanmar has burnt the houses and villages.

“So, I asked him how they will verify their address. He replied that they have the list of the villages where they [Rohingyas] lived,” the foreign minister told reporters at the press call while his attention was drawn to the issue.