Bringing back verified Rohingyas is immediate priority of Myanmar: Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali

Naypyidaw, October 3: Myanmar, who's facing global backlash over the fate of Rohingya Muslims, told the United Nation that bringing back the displaced migrants is their immediate priority. Myanmar has made proposals to Bangladesh about bringing Rohingyas back to home.

"What Bangladesh has been saying is that we want to settle this issue peacefully and both countries have agreed to that."

Ali said both countries agreed to form a joint working group to start work on the massive repatriation. The Myanmar delegation did not speak to the media.

The crisis over Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya is the biggest problem leader Aung San Suu Kyi has had to face since forming a government last year after winning a landmark election in late 2015.

The joint statement of 1992, an agreement signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar, had a loophole allowing only the repatriation of those with valid identity cards of Myanmar.

Meanwhile, over 10,000 more Rohingya refugees fleeing a military crackdown at home in Myanmar’s Rakhine State have amassed near a crossing point with Bangladesh awaiting entry into the neighboring country.

The refugees “are arriving at the western grove between Letphwekya and Kwunthpin village to immigrate to the neighboring country,” the state-backed Global new Light of Myanmar reported on Tuesday.

According to United Nations’s report, 480000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since violence broke out in Myanmar on 25th of August, increasing its estimate by 45,000 in last two days.

The Bangladesh government of Buddhist-majority Myanmar says its security forces are fighting Rohingya militants behind a surge of violence in Rakhine state that began on August 25, and they are doing all they can to avoid harming civilians.