"At the latest ASEAN Summit [last month], the President [Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo] asserted Indonesia's readiness to support the reconciliation process in Rakhine. He also demanded progress in the preparation for repatriation," Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said after Indonesia and ASEAN signed the grant agreement on Friday.

The grant, according to Retno, is a manifestation of Indonesia's commitment to support the work of the ad hoc team in facilitating a voluntary, safe and dignified repatriation of the refugees.

The ad hoc task force was formed in the ASEAN Secretariat by ASEAN leaders in early November after previous efforts to repatriate Rohingya refugees ended in failure when no refugees were willing to return to Myanmar's Rakhine state.

The task force is in charge of building mutual trust among all related stakeholders — including the refugees, people in Myanmar and the Myanmar government — through dialogue, monitoring the repatriation and whether their needs after returning to Myanmar — such as education and health care — are fulfilled.

These needs were assessed by the Emergency Response and Assessment Team (ERAT) from the bloc’s disaster-mitigation agency, the AHA Center, after it visited the refugee population in Bangladesh in March.

Efforts to repatriate the Rohingya have been carried out at least twice, including in late August after ERAT issued its recommendations from the assessment. However, the August push also turned out to be a failure as no one voluntarily returned out of fear for their safety and the lack of recognition from the Myanmar government of their legal status. These refugees have demanded a dialogue with the Myanmar government about a real guarantee of citizenship and security.

Representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat have also visited refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh twice in July and December, Antara reported.

Observers and activists have criticized ASEAN for its slow response to the refugee crisis, which has dragged on since August 2017 when more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled across the border to Bangladesh after the military launched a crackdown in Rakhine. While the United Nations has accused Myanmar's military of committing "genocide" against the Muslim minority.

Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, has consistently called on the international community to stop pointing fingers at the Buddhist-majority country and to build trust through dialogue instead.

The Foreign Ministry's director general for ASEAN cooperation, Jose Tavarez, said that all stakeholders should convince the refugees of their security and wellbeing when they return to Rakhine in order to make the repatriation a great success.

Indonesia's grant is the first such contribution by an ASEAN nation given via the ASEAN Secretariat, with Myanmar officials welcoming the move.

"Of course we have bilateral support and assistance from ASEAN member states, but I have to emphasize again that this is the first of its kind through the ASEAN Secretariat," said U Min Lwin, Myanmar's permanent representative to ASEAN.

Prior to providing the grant, Indonesia built a hospital in the Rakhine city of Mrauk U that was handed over through a bilateral channel to the Myanmar government.

The new grant for Rohingya repatriation is to be disbursed under the scheme of Indo-AID, a new development fund agency established by Indonesia, and the aid is the first given by another ASEAN member state to Myanmar outside the bilateral mechanism. Previously, Indonesia through the Indo-AID platform laid out grants for other countries, such as those in the South Pacific: Fiji, Nauru, Tuvalu and Solomon Islands — with a total of $14.8 million this year.

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