Displaced Rohingya refugees from Rakhine state carry their belongings near the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar. Photograph: KM Asad/AFP/Getty Images
More than 120,000 Rohingya people have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh in the last two weeks after a rise in violence against the Muslim ethnic minority, according to the United Nations.
The situation has raised fears of a humanitarian crisis in overstretched border camps, with another 400,000 stateless Rohingya people estimated to be trapped in conflict zones in western Myanmar since more “clearance operations” by security forces in Rakhine state began last month.
UN aid agencies continue to be blocked from delivering food, water and medicine to the Rohingya, while humanitarian workers on the ground say warehouses stocking vital emergency supplies are being looted.
As the international outcry over the crisis grew, an aid group that has been rescuing tens of thousands of refugees from the Mediterranean Sea announced it was redirecting its ship to south-east Asia.
Migrant Offshore Aid Station said it was suspending its operations off the Libyan coast and sending the vessel to the Bay of Bengal. The Malta-based organisation, which has rescued about 40,000 refugees attempting to reach Europe in the last three years, said it would focus on providing aid on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border “where a deadly exodus is unfolding”.
It cited Pope Francis’s appeals for an international response to the plight of the Rohingya people, but also, the number of refugees fleeing Libya has dropped significantly since the country increased naval patrols and militia groups agreed to crack down on smuggling.
The UN announced on Tuesday that the number of Rohingya to have reached Bangladesh in recent days was estimated to be 123,600. Up to 15,000 Rohingya refugees are expected to cross the Naf river into Bangladesh each day this week, joining the tens of thousands already taking shelter in overcrowded camps and makeshift settlements.
The UN announced on Tuesday that the number of people to have reached Bangladesh in recent days was estimated to be 123,600, overwhelmingly Rohingya refugees but also some Buddhists and Hindus. Up to 15,000 more people are expected to cross the Naf river into Bangladesh each day this week, joining the tens of thousands already taking shelter in overcrowded camps and makeshift settlements.
Aid groups say supplies are rapidly falling while medical clinics are overwhelmed by the 40-50% increase in patients, some with serious injuries.
Another estimated 20,000 people are stranded in the “no man’s land” between the two countries, having been denied entry by Bangladesh border guards, although thousands continue to cross through unguarded areas.
The latest wave of refugees, the second significant surge in the past year, was sparked on 25 August after Rohingya militants attacked government forces, who responded with a counter-offensive that has killed hundreds.
Refugees who have made it to Bangladesh have told of massacres and arson they say are being committed by armed forces. Human Rights Watch has cited satellite evidence of widespread burning in at least 10 parts of Rakhine state in the days after the armed crackdown began.
The government has said rebels are burning their own villages and accused them of killing Buddhists and Hindus, a claim repeated by some residents. The Myanmar military said 400 people had been killed, the vast majority of them “terrorists”. UN officials have estimated the death toll at “around a thousand”.
Media and independent observers are denied access to Rakhine and the figures cited by the government and Rohingya activists are impossible to verify.
The Rohingya have been persecuted for decades in Myanmar but the recent violence is seen as a major escalation because of the the scale of the destruction and the involvement of a new Rohingya militant group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.
The UN estimated in May this year that since 2012 about 168,000 Rohingya had fled Myanmar, where the group is denied citizenship and access to basic government services.
International pressure is growing on Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de-facto leader and a Nobel peace laureate, to intervene decisively and curb the military operations.
More than 300,000 people have signed an online petition asking the Nobel committee to rescind the prize awarded in 1991 for her democratic activism during the years the country was run by a military junta.
In recent years, the military has relaxed its grip on the country but remains an influential force and holds 25% of parliamentary seats.
The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, said on Monday the situation in Rakhine state was “really grave” and it was time for Aung San Suu Kyi to “step in”.
Lee said Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party won the country’s first free elections in a generation in 2015, was “caught between a rock and a hard spot. I think it is time for her to come out of that spot now.”
A Burmese human rights group said on Tuesday that the persecution of Muslims in the Buddhist-majority state had grown in the last five years and extended beyond Rohingya people to include the creation of “Muslim-free zones” across the country.
Images and reports of the renewed plight of the Rohingya people have drawn condemnation across the world, including from Suu Kyi’s fellow Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has described the violence as a genocide and claimed Turkey would compensate Bangladesh for taking in the refugees.
On Monday, demonstrations were held in the Russian republic of Chechnya, where the leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, compared the treatment of the Rohingya to the Holocaust.
Report a problem.
No comments:
Post a Comment