State-run newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar reported on Thursday that the government had reached a deal with UN-Habitat that would help provide housing to Rohigya refugees who fled violence in Rakhine State. Later that day, a UN spokesman denied that any agreement had been made.
“UN-Habitat has agreed with the government to provide technical assistance in building housings for displaced people in northern Rakhine,” said the Global New Light article, which came out the day after a meeting between Myanmar’s minister for social welfare, relief, and resettlement Dr. Win Myat Aye, and UN-Habitat’s senior human settlements officer Bruno Dercon in Naypyidaw.
Dr. Win Myat Aye also serves as vice-chair of the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement, and Development (UEHRD), which was formed to coordinate the rebuilding of infrastructure in northern Rakhine State in the aftermath of military operations that displaced over 600,000 Rohingya Muslims from the country.
According to the Global New Light, Dercon told Dr. Win Myat Aye at the meeting that UN-Habitat would “work closely with ministries concerned to implement the projects to be favorable to Myanmar’s social culture and administrative system.”
UN spokesman Stanislav Saling, however, disputed the claim.
“No agreements were reached so far,” Saling told Reuters. “The UN-Habitat mission emphasized that resettlement should be conducted in accordance with the principles of housing and property restitution for refugees and displaced persons to support their safe and dignified return to their places of origin.”
The correction brings new attention to an ongoing dispute between the Myanmar government and the UN. In April, UNHCR criticized the government’s plan to resettle a previous wave of Rohingya refugees in “model villages,” saying the villages would be “like IDP camps.”
“A forced relocation to the ‘model villages’ would not progress stabilization in these areas,” UNHCR said at the time.
In the wake of the Global New Light article last week, Saling said UN-Habitat welcomed the interest of the Myanmar government in international norms and standards, apparently referring to the UN principles that dictate that refugees or displaced persons have the right to return to property or land from which they were arbitrarily or unlawfully removed.
Ministry of Social Welfare permanent secretary Soe Aung, who attended the meeting with UN-Habitat on Wednesday, doubled down on the Global New Light’s claim.
“We have reached an agreement with the UN for technical assistance. We will discuss more details on how to proceed,” he told Reuters, adding that discussions will resume on November 8.
The Myanmar government has pledged that any displaced people staying in Bangladesh will be allowed to return if they can prove they were Myanmar residents previously. However, the likelihood that they will be able to return to their homes and livelihoods has diminished as crops, cattle, and land once owned by Rohingya residents of northern Rakhine State have been seized by the government, by soldiers, or by the area’s Rakhine Buddhist residents.
