The United Nations appealed on Friday for some $1 billion to address the refugee crisis as hundreds of thousands Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh to escape a brutal security crackdown by Myanmar authorities.
UN agencies asked for $951 million (774 million euros) through the rest of the year to provide basic needs for the nearly one million Rohingya in Bangladesh, including the almost 700,000 who have crossed the border since August.
The head of the UN refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, told reporters that the immediate concern was mobilizing life-saving aid for refugees, especially with monsoon season approaching and tens of thousands of people living in areas prone to landslides and floods.
Grandi again acknowledged that it "may take a very long time" before any Rohingya can return to their home in Myanmar's Rakhine state, in the absence of any evidence that they will be safe if they go back.
The Rohingya fled after Myanmar launched a brutal crackdown on insurgents six months ago that the UN has called "ethnic cleansing" -- a claim the country vehemently denies.
But Grandi insisted that despite those circumstances, he would not stop fighting for the repatriation of those who wish to return home.
"I think it is very important to talk about the right of the Rohingya to return," he said, adding that he "cannot entertain the notion" where their displacement is deemed permanent.
Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed in November to begin repatriating Rohingya who volunteered to return to Rakhine state, where the persecuted Muslim minority has lived for generations.
Grandi conceded that the conditions for safe return are not in place and that discussions with Myanmar on repatriation "have been pretty basic, not very frequent (and) not very advanced".
But, he added, those talks "have continued".
Senior officials in Myanmar had announced Wednesday that they had kicked off talks with UN agencies to see how they could assist with the repatriation of the Rohingya refugees.
Foreign Ministry Permanent Secretary Myint Thu said the offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN Development Program responded last week with a proposal and concept paper to the government's invitation for UN involvement, which the government is now studying.
"We considered that the time is now appropriate to invite UNHCR and UNDP to be involved in the repatriation and resettlement process, as well as in carrying out activities supporting the livelihoods and development for all communities in Rakhine state," Myint Thu said.
Antagonism between Rakhine's Buddhist community and Rohingya Muslims led to communal violence in 2012, forcing at least 140,000 Rohingya from their homes into squalid camps for internally displaced people.
Stanislav Saling, a UN spokesman in Myanmar, confirmed that in response to Myanmar's initiative, the UN agencies submitted a note proposing how they could help create conditions "for the safe, dignified and voluntary return for refugees, in line with international principles."
The international community has accused Myanmar's military of atrocities against the Rohingya that could amount to ethnic cleansing, but the government and military deny any organized human rights violations.
Myanmar's civilian government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has pledged to start the gradual repatriation of the Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh.
Myanmar's government says 374 refugees out of more than 8,000 whom Bangladesh has verified as qualified to return are free to return at their convenience.
"We have handed the list of 374 people to the Bangladesh Embassy so that they can immediately start their repatriation," Myint Thu said. "These 374 people can be the first repatriation batch."
