Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be stateless, although
they trace their presence in the country back generations. Bangladesh says
Myanmar's failure to recognise its own citizens is a major stumbling block to
resolving the crisis.
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| Nearly 340,000 Rohingya children are living in squalid conditions in Bangladesh camps where they lack enough food, clean water and health care (Reuters) |
Bangladesh called on
Myanmar on Monday to allow nearly 1 million Rohingya Muslim refugees to return
home under safe conditions, saying that the burden had become
"untenable" on its territory.
"This is an
untenable situation," Shameem Ahsan, Bangladesh's ambassador to the United
Nations in Geneva, told a UN pledging conference. "Despite claims to the
contrary, violence in Rakhine state has not stopped. Thousands still enter on a
daily basis."
Vital humanitarian
aid must continue, Ahsan said, adding: "It is of paramount importance that
Myanmar delivers on its recent promises and works towards safe, dignified,
voluntary return of its nationals back to their homes in Myanmar."
Bangladesh's
interior minister was in Yangon on Monday for talks to find a "durable
solution", he said.
But Myanmar
continued to issue "propaganda projecting Rohingyas as illegal immigrants
from Bangladesh", Ahsan said, adding: "This blatant denial of the
ethnic identity of Rohingyas remains a stumbling block."
Pope expresses
support for Rohingya children
Pope Francis mourned
the plight of 200,000 Rohingya children stuck in refugee camps a month before
he heads to Myanmar and Bangladesh, the countries at the heart of an
intensifying humanitarian crisis.
"Two hundred
thousand Rohingya children (are) in refugee camps. They have barely enough to
eat, though they have a right to food. (They are) Malnourished, without
medicine," Pope said on Monday.
He has previously
expressed support for the persecuted Muslim minority in Myanmar, calling them
"brothers and sisters."
UN hosts donors
conference for Rohingya refugees
The United Nations
held a one-day ministerial-level conference in Geneva in partnership with the
European Union and Kuwait to help meet a UN call for $434 million in funding
for more than half-a-million Rohingya refugees who have fled violence in
Myanmar for Bangladesh since August 25.
Officials say less
than one-quarter of that has come in so far.
Spokesman Adrian
Edwards of refugee agency UNHCR said on Monday that some 603,000 people have
crossed into Bangladesh from neighbouring Myanmar since August 25, when
security forces launched a violent crackdown targeting them.
According to UNICEF,
the UN children agency, children, who make up most of the nearly 600,000
Rohingya Muslims, have fled violence in Myanmar only to experience a "hell
on earth" in overcrowded, muddy and squalid refugee camps in neighbouring
Bangladesh.
The massive influx
of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh has caused aid agencies to scramble to
help the displaced.
They are struggling
to raise enough funds to feed, clothe and house those who have escaped violence
in Myanmar.
TRT World's Nick
Davies-Jones reports. https://youtu.be/PbRRt0ZoDqc
UNICEF "Outcast and Desperate" report
Last week, UNICEF issued a report that documents the
plight of children who account for 58 percent of the refugees who have poured
into Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, over the last eight weeks.
Up to 12,000 more children join them every week, fleeing
violence or hunger in Myanmar, often still traumatised by atrocities they
witnessed, it said in a report "Outcast and Desperate".
Report author Simon Ingram said that about one in five
children in the area are "acutely malnourished."
The refugees need clean water, food, sanitation, shelter
and medical care to help head off a possible outbreak of cholera – a
potentially deadly water-borne disease.
Ingram also warned of threats posed by human traffickers
and others who might exploit children in the refugee areas.
The report features harrowing colour drawings by some
children being cared for by UNICEF and other aid groups who are scrambling to
improve living conditions in Cox's Bazar.
Source: TRT World
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