A total of 87,000 mostly Rohingya refugees have arrived in Bangladesh since violence erupted in neighbouring Myanmar on August 25, the United Nations said yesterday
Rohingya refugees rest under a makeshift tent in a meadow in Ukhiya, Bangladesh. Pic/AFP
A total of 87,000 mostly Rohingya refugees have arrived in Bangladesh since violence erupted in neighbouring Myanmar on August 25, the United Nations said on Monday.
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Thousands of the stateless Muslim minority have poured over the border since the latest round of fighting broke out, piling pressure on the already overcrowded camps in Bangladesh.
Around 20,000 more were massed on the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine and waiting to enter, the UN said in a report. Dhaka had stepped up border controls after the latest round of violence began 10 days ago, but the UN said recent arrivals reported there had been no attempt to stop them from crossing.
UN said most of the new arrivals were in the squalid camps already housing hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees around the coastal town of Cox’s Bazar. Refugees have alleged their families were massacred and villages torched by security forces and Buddhist mobs.
Malala asks Suu Kyi to act
Education activist Malala Yousafzai has called on her fellow Nobel laureate Aug San Suu Kyi to condemn the 'shameful' violence against Rohingya Muslims. “Over the last several years, I have repeatedly condemned this tragic and shameful treatment. I am still waiting for my fellow Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to do the same,” she said in a statement. “The world is waiting and the Rohingya Muslims are waiting,” she noted.
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