COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh — The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says the exodus of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh is “the most urgent refugee emergency in the world” right now.
Filippo Grandi tells reporters in the Bangladeshi town of Cox’s Bazar that the needs of the more than 430,000 people who have fled terrible violence in Myanmar over the last month are enormous and that the international community must step up financial and material aid to Bangladesh if the South Asian nation is to be able to help the refugees.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, center, interacts with Rohingya Muslim children at Kutupalong, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, September 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Ziaul Haque Oisharjh)
The latest round of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state erupted when a Rohingya insurgent group launched deadly attacks against security posts on August 25, prompting Myanmar’s military to launch “clearance operations” to root out the rebels. Those fleeing have described indiscriminate attacks by security forces and Buddhist mobs. The government has blamed the Rohingya, saying they set fire to their own homes, but has provided no proof.
The UN and others have described the violence as ethnic cleansing. Rohingya have faced persecution and discrimination in majority-Buddhist Myanmar for decades and are denied citizenship, even though many families have lived there for generations.
— AP
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