Bangladesh and Myanmar has consented to begin the return of over half a million Rohingya refugees in two months who fled following escalation of crisis as global pressure mounts.
After months of strife, Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Dhaka's Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmood Ali inked a deal in Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw on Thursday.
The United Nations says 620,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh from August and now reside in the world's largest refugee camp after a military crackdown in Myanmar that Washington said clearly constitutes "ethnic cleansing".
It was revealed that a working group would be set up within three weeks to kick start the arrangements for the repatriation.
Bangladesh which is overpopulated has attracted global accolade after accepting the refugees into their country, which they made clear was on a temporary basis.
" Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and other Western countries had described the matter as an international concern by passing resolutions at the UN Human Rights Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations," a statement from the Bangladesh foreign ministry said.
"The principled position of Myanmar is that issues that emerge between neighbouring countries must be resolved amicably through bilateral negotiations."
The provisional deal comes the day after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who met with Suu Kyi in Myanmar last week, issued Washington’s strongest-yet denunciation.
"It is apparent that the situation in northern Rakhine state constitutes ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya," Tillerson said.
"No provocation can justify the horrendous atrocities that have ensued."
The tide of desperate humanity that has poured over Myanmar’s riverine border into Bangladesh is thick with horrifying stories of rape, murder and arson at the hands of Myanmar’s military and Buddhist mobs.
The Burmese army insists its crackdown has been proportionate and targeted only at Rohingya rebels.
Human Rights groups have expressed concerns about the repatriation process, of how the minorities will be settled when hundreds of villages of the minorities have been razed down as well as how their safety will be guaranteed in a where anti-Muslim sentiment is swelling.
The stateless Rohingya have remained a major target of vicious anti-Muslim sentiment and communal violence in the mainly Buddhist Myanmar for years.
They government have also systematically oppressed them, which has led to difficulty of many to access basic social amenities and needs due to restriction of their movement.
Many of the refugees are unenthusiastic about returning to Myanmar despite the dire state of the overstretched camps in Bangladesh, unless they are granted full citizenship.
