The United Nations is preparing to send teams of experts into Myanmar's Rakhine state to begin work aimed at eventually repatriating Rohingya Muslims who fled violence last year, the regional head of the U.N. development agency said on Thursday.
The U.N. agencies for development and refugees struck an outline deal with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's government at the end of May to allow Rohingya Muslims sheltering in Bangladesh to return safely and by choice.
Haoliang Xu, the United Nations Development Programme's director for the Asia-Pacific region, said U.N. officials were last week allowed to travel freely around northern Rakhine for the first time since August 2017.