Myanmar's Rakhine state is currently not safe enough to allow for the return of Rohingya refugees who have fled to Bangladesh, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said, reacting to the repatriation deal between the two countries.
"Refugees are still fleeing, and many have suffered violence, rape, and deep psychological harm," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva.
The UN's concerns join those of Rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who on Friday condemned a deal to repatriate 622,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees who have fled to Bangladesh in recent months to escape a brutal crackdown by Myanmar's army.
Full details of the agreement, which foresees the beginning of the repatriation process within two months and was signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh on Thursday, have not yet been disclosed.
Most of the Rohingya refugees would return to destroyed homes and deep social divisions, Edwards said, adding that aid agencies get hardly any access to Rakhine.
"It is critical that returns do not take place precipitously or prematurely, without the informed consent of refugees or the basic elements of lasting solutions in place," Edwards said.
Charmain Mohamed of Amnesty International - who on Monday said the systematic discrimination of minority Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar amounted to apartheid - said that the return of the Rohingya in the current climate was "unthinkable."
"Talk of returns is clearly premature at a time when Rohingya refugees continue to trickle into Bangladesh on an almost daily basis as they flee ethnic cleansing in Myanmar," she said in a statement released Friday.
Bill Frelick, refugee rights director of New York-based Human Rights Watch said "the idea that Burma [Myanmar] will now welcome [the Rohingya] back to their smouldering villages with open arms is laughable."
"The international community should make it clear that there can be no returns without international monitors to ensure security, an end to the idea of putting returnees in camps, the return of land and the rebuilding of destroyed homes and villages, and many other conditions," he continued in a statement.
Myanmar's military has been accused of carrying out a campaign of rape, killings and arson against Rohingya following Rohingya militant attacks in August. Both the United Nations and the United States have accused it of ethnic cleansing.
