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SEAN countries have reminded Myanmar to begin the repatriation of more than 700,000 Rohingya who were forced across the border over the past year, as patience is wearing thin among members of the international community, even among ASEAN member states.

Singapore, as ASEAN chair this year, stated that the regional body “stands ready to help”, its Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said, noting that the most immediate step to take was repatriation, as there was an agreement signed between Myanmar and Bangladesh.

The two countries reached a deal in November to begin repatriation within two months, but it has not started, with the stateless Rohingya still crossing the border into Bangladesh.

“It is now September. At some point, in order to remain credible, you have to see some movement [...] on a voluntary basis; you need to see that they are able to move back in a dignified, safe manner. That’s the next step and it’s an important confidence-building step,” Balakrishnan said in New York, as quoted by The Straits Times on Sunday.

Any form of improvement was urgently needed, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi told reporters after the ASEAN-United Nations ministerial meeting in New York on Friday.

“If the condition does not improve, it would not only affect Myanmar but also ASEAN,” Retno said, in a recorded statement received on Saturday.

“ASEAN must be present and available to help,” she said, “We are aware that there is a lack of trust between Myanmar and the international world, that is why we have to talk with Myanmar frankly and openly as a family.”

Myanmar’s minister for the Office of the State Counselor Kyaw Tint Swe claimed his government had made necessary preparations and was ready to receive verified returnees from Bangladesh since Jan. 23 of this year.

“The only way to resolve the issue swiftly and peacefully is through the implementation of bilateral agreements, working together in the spirit of good neighborliness, refraining from activities that might be inimical to the national interests of either Myanmar or Bangladesh,” he said in his speech at the UN General Assembly on Friday.

However, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said earlier in the week that Myanmar keeps on finding new excuses to delay the return of the Rohingya.

“They agree to everything, but unfortunately they don’t act, that is the problem,” Hasina said of Myanmar. “Everything is set but [...] every time they try to find some new excuse,” she told Reuters in an interview.

Myanmar said it was ready to take back the refugees and had built transit centers to house them initially on their return. But it has complained that Bangladesh has not provided its officials with the correct forms. Bangladesh has rejected those claims and UN aid agencies say it is not yet safe for the refugees to return.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad, the elderly statesman of ASEAN, said he had lost faith in Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, adding that Malaysia would no longer support her.

In an interview with Turkish international news channel TRT World, Mahathir said Suu Kyi seemed to be a “changed person” over the Rohingya issue.

“She did not want to say anything against the action taken by the military against the Rohingyas. So, we make [it] quite clear that we don’t really support her anymore,” he told host Ghida Fakhry.