The fourth meeting of the Bangladesh-Myanmar joint working group (JWG) is set to be held in Naypydaw on Friday, to discuss the repatriation of hundreds of thousands Rohingyas sheltered in Cox’s Bazar after escaping brutality at the hands of their own security forces, local Buddhist mobs, and people of different ethnic groups in Rakhine.
A 13-strong Bangladesh team, led by Secretary-Bilateral (Asia and Pacific) of the Foreign Ministry Mahbub Uz Zaman, is already in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar.
This is going to be the first visible engagement between the two neighbours after the botched attempt to begin repatriation on November 15, 2018, and the officials concerned are not enthusiastic about the meeting.
“We arrived in Naypyidaw today [on Thursday]. We hope to have a good meeting that will enable us to begin repatriation as soon as possible,” a senior member of the Bangladesh team told Dhaka Tribune from the Myanmar capital yesterday.
“When you deal with a difficult neighbour like Myanmar, it is natural to have doubts about any positive outcome from the meeting,” he said in response to a query.
“We will ask Myanmar to implement some decisions taken at the earlier meetings of JWG to create a favourable condition for the safe, dignified and sustainable repatriation,” he added.
The first meeting of the JWG was held in Naypyidaw in January, 2018, while the second and third were held in Dhaka in May and October the same year.
The foreign secretary-level group was formed to facilitate repatriation after the signing of a deal between Bangladesh and Myanmar in Naypyidaw on November 23, 2017. According to the deal, repatriation was to begin by January 22, 2018 - more than 15 months ago - but could not because of the unwillingness of Myanmar.
The JWG is only mandated to deal with the Rohingya refugees, who arrived after the crackdowns in October, 2016, and August, 2017.
There has been no talk about another 300,000 Rohingyas who have been living in Bangladesh for decades.