DHAKA: Bangladesh and Myanmar are to resume talks on Rohingya refugee repatriation on Friday, after a lull of more than five months.
A 16-member Bangladeshi team is already in the capital city of Myanmar to attend the Joint Working Group's (JWG) fourth meeting.
The two nations established the JWG in November 2017 to expedite the refugee repatriation process, following a massive number of Rohingya Muslims fleeing a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and entering neighboring Bangladesh in search of refuge.
They agreed to initiate repatriation within two months of signing a deal at the time. But there has been little to no progress since.
Bangladesh will try to exert pressure on its neighbor to ensure a conducive environment in Rakhine for the repatriation process to begin as soon as possible, said a member of the Bangladeshi delegation requesting anonymity.
“We will inquire about the physical developments on the ground which were decided to be implemented by Myanmar during the first two JWG meetings,” the official told Arab News.
“It is very difficult to deal with a party like Myanmar since they don't stick to their promises. Although we are hopeful to have some concrete outcome of the meeting, the situation in Rakhine is still very problematic. But we have no other option except to engage them in talks.”
Last November an attempt to repatriate Rohingya refugees living in Cox's Bazar failed when no volunteers came forward. Refugees also voiced their concern about the discrimination and violence that awaited them, saying the environment was not right for their return.
Last month the UN’s humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said there had been “no progress” in dealing with the reasons why more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims had fled to Bangladesh.
Myanmar had failed “to put in place confidence-building measures that would persuade people it’s safe to go back,” Associated Press reported Lowcock as saying.
Experts who spoke to Arab News said Bangladesh should be bold at the negotiating table.
“We should make it clear to them (Myanmar) that if there is no outcome on ground, then there is no point in having these meetings time and again,” Professor Imtiaz Ahmed, an international relations expert at Dhaka University, told Arab News. "As an immediate step of their willingness, Myanmar should take some visible steps to change their law which should ensure right of citizenship for the Rohingyas.”
Buddhist-majority Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be ‘Bengalis’ from Bangladesh even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively making them stateless. They are also denied freedom of movement and other basic rights.
Humayun Kabir, Bangladesh's former ambassador to the US, said that Myanmar should exhibit “sincerity” for the repatriation process to invoke “a sense of reliability” among the refugees.
“We need a sustainable solution to the Rohingya crisis, which Bangladesh wants to achieve through diplomatic means,” he told Arab News.
He said that Bangladesh could also seek diplomatic assistance from neighboring countries. Singapore could play a crucial role in putting pressure on Myanmar as the two have strong economic ties and are ASEAN member states.
