UN agencies have formally requested Myanmar to allow them to assess the condition of the villages where the first batch of Rohingyas will be repatriated later this month.
“On the list that Bangladesh has provided to UNHCR, we have formally with UNDP requested access to those areas of return because it is important to allow people to have information to make informed choice,” UNHCR acting Country Director James Lynch said at a seminar in the city Sunday.
The responsibility of creating condition conducive for voluntary return rest entirely on the government of Myanmar, he said.
The UN agencies have so far assessed some 40 villages to implement the memorandum it signed with Myanmar, added Lynch, the Southeast Asia regional representative of the UN refugee agency.
UN Resident Coordinator Mia Seppo said that there was no lack of communication between Bangladesh government and UN agencies. “We are coordinating closely.”
Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque said Bangladesh and Myanmar both agreed on the repatriation date.
“The starting is very vital in this type of repatriation process. We are trying as it is complex process.”
Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed that if everything goes well, then 2,260 Rohingyas of 485 families will be repatriated on No 15.

More than 700,000 Rohingyas crossed from Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s Rakhine into Bangladesh from August last year after Rohingya insurgent attacks on the Myanmar security forces triggered a sweeping military response.

The UN refugee agency, however, says conditions in Rakhine state were “not yet conducive for returns”, stressing that they must be voluntary, Reuters reported last week.
Necessary safeguards are “absent” in the region, where it has had only limited access amid continuing restrictions for media and other independent observers, according to the UN agency .
“It is critical that returns are not rushed or premature,” UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told Reuters in Geneva.