The return of the displaced Rohingya refugees to Myanmar should take place only at their "freely expressed wish", the UN's top refugee official said, amid concern that conditions at their places of origin are not conducive. According to the UN estimates, nearly 700,000 minority Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State since August 25 last year when the army launched a military crackdown.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a statement Sunday that repatriation of refugees "is premised upon the free and informed decision by refugees... to return". Since late August 2017, widespread and systematic violence against Myanmar's mainly-Muslim minority Rohingya community has forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in Rakhine State and seek refuge across the country's border in Bangladesh. Prior to that, well over 200,000 Rohingya refugees were sheltering in Bangladesh due to earlier displacements. According to the latest estimates, there are currently some 925,000 Rohingya refugees sheltering in Bangladesh.