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| Recently arrived Rohingya refugees have been begging on the roadsides at Kutupalong, Teknaf |
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of
human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, will undertake a visit to Bangladesh from
February 20-23.
She is expected to visit various locations in Cox’s
Bazar, where the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are living in camps, a UN press
release said.
“The announcement that the military security operations
in the north of Rakhine has ceased is welcomed. However, we cannot forget the
numerous allegations of grave human rights violations recorded by the team
deployed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to Cox’s Bazar last
month,” the human rights expert said.
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| Ms Yanghee Lee |
Yanghee Lee, who undertook her fifth visit to Myanmar in
January, will focus on the situation of the Rohingyas who crossed into
Bangladesh in the past 4-5 months and the events which led to their crossing
over.
“Having access to these affected communities would help
give me a better understanding of their human rights situation in Myanmar,” she
said.
After her 12-day visit to Myanmar, Lee warned about
possible reprisals against people she met during her recent official visit to
the country.
“I must remind again that these attacks took place within
the context of decades of systematic and institutionalised discrimination
against the Rohingya population,” she noted. The expert also went to several
affected Muslim villages.
Speaking at a news briefing held in Yangon at the end of
her visit to Myanmar, Lee said the government led by Nobel peace laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi would “appear less and less credible” if it continued being
defensive in response to allegations of persistently reported serious human
rights violations, Bangkok Post reported.
Following her three-day visit to Bangladesh, the human
rights expert will issue an end of mission statement and share her findings
when she presents a new report to the UN Human Rights Council on March 13, 2017.
The report will be posted online.
In order to ensure humanitarian assistance to the
Rohingya refugees, the government has decided to relocate them to Thengar Char,
an Island next to Hatia Island in the Bay of Bengal.