Myanmar to allow early Rohingya return despite UN warnings

Rohingya refugees will be allowed to return to Myanmar “as soon as possible,” a minister said, despite questions about the repatriation process and UN warnings that the safety of returnees could not be guaranteed. Win Myat Aye, Myanmar’s social welfare minister, made the comments in Dhaka late Thursday after visiting one of the Bangladesh camps for some of the one million Rohingya Muslims to have fled the country, AFP reported. “We can overcome many difficulties we are facing,” he told reporters after a meeting with Bangladeshi officials. The Myanmar military began a crackdown last August in response to a spate of insurgent attacks. Myanmar has said it is ready for repatriation, but no date has been given for the return. Skepticism is rife in Bangladesh and elsewhere that a stalled refugee return plan will ever be implemented.