YANGON: The United Nations said Myanmar’s government agreed on Thursday to grant it access to crisis-hit Rakhine state after months of wrangling over how to repatriate hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees. The access would allow the UN refugee agency to “assess conditions on the ground and carry out protection activities,” it added, without elaborating. Myanmar has said it is ready to take back the Rohingya and has traded accusations with Bangladesh over who is responsible for the delay. The draft agreement is an “opportunity to help stem the pernicious consequences of the Myanmar government’s persistent denials of independent access to UN agencies,” Human Rights Watch Myanmar researcher Rich Weir said. New UN envoy for Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener is due to pay a first visit to the country in June for talks on the Rohingya refugee crisis following a Security Council visit.

Source: Manila Times June 01, 2018 18:22 UTC