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he United Kingdom and France, along with 12 other countries including Indonesia, have called for increased international pressure on Myanmar to make its troubled Rakhine state conducive for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees who fled violence into Bangladesh last year.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian issued a joint statement following a closed-door meeting on Myanmar on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, the United States.

Indonesian Foreign Ministry Retno LP Marsudi confirmed her attendance at the meeting but did not elaborate on the issue.

While details of the meeting remain scarce, the UK government issued a statement after the event, with co-chairs Hunt and Le Drian airing concerns about the conditions in Rakhine state, which they say are “not yet conducive” for the safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable repatriation of Rohingya refugees.

“There remained a need for ongoing international action to push for more and faster progress in three main areas,” the co-chairs said in their joint statement issued Monday.

The forum said “immediate, safe and unhindered access” must be granted to UN agencies and their partners, as well as other domestic and international non-governmental organizations, to provide humanitarian assistance in Rakhine.

Hunt and Le Drian urged the international community to further push Myanmar to fully implement the recommendations of a UN fact-finding mission and provide access for the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Development Program (UNDP), with whom the Myanmar government had signed an agreement to address the crisis.

Such measures were a “necessary next step in any return process, as well as further confidence-building measures”, the meeting concluded.

Myanmar’s own Commission of Inquiry (CoI) was subject to criticism during the meeting, with France and the UK saying it had yet to produce any tangible results.

UN-mandated investigators have said Myanmar’s military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya with “genocidal intent” in an operation in Rakhine state, in the west of the country, that drove more than 700,000 refugees across the border to Bangladesh.

Separately on Monday, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley announced that the US would disburse more than US$185 million in additional humanitarian assistance for those in Myanmar and Bangladesh who had been affected by the Rakhine crisis.

The funds, which included $156 million for Rohingya refugees and host communities in Bangladesh, would support the implementation of critical emergency services, including protection, emergency shelter, food, water, sanitation, health care, and psychosocial support, Haley said.