Bangkok: Human Rights Watch has described an agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh to begin repatriating more than 620,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar's violence-wracked Rakhine State as "laughable" and a "public relations stunt."

In a brief statement Bangladesh said the neighbouring countries had agreed to start returning Rohingya to Rakhine within two months. The agreement was signed on Thursday in Naypyitaw.

Myanmar's Union Minister Kyaw Tint Swe, right, shakes hands with Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abdul Hassan Mahmud Ali after signing the deal in Naypyitaw. Credit:AP

It comes as the Turnbull Government has for the first time used the term "ethnic cleansing" while referring to atrocities committed against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's violence-wracked Rakhine state.

A day after the United States accused Myanmar security forces of committing "horrendous" crimes that amount to ethnic cleansing, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told Fairfax Media