UN chief calls to step up support for Rohingyas

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called upon the international community to step up support for Rohingyas currently living as refugees in Bangladesh.

Nothing could've prepared me for the scale of crisis and extent of suffering I saw today in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. I heard heartbreaking accounts from Rohingya refugees that will stay with me forever.



My appeal to the int'l community is to step up support. pic.twitter.com/jP3vv3IIbs

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) July 2, 2018

He made the call through a Tweet after visiting the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar.

- "It is unbelievable. My heart is broken," Guterres said while briefing reporters at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhiya this afternoon.

- Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar to Bangladesh want justice and safe return home, he said.

- Guterres said he heard probably the most tragic stories, referring to the "unimaginable accounts of killing and rape from Rohingya refugees".

- He termed the atrocities by Myanmar forces on the Rohingya people as "systematic violation of human rights".

- There is no doubt that the Rohingyas are one of the most discriminated people on the Earth, he said.

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- Guterres said it is unacceptable that these people have suffered so much in Myanmar.

- He called for a deep gratitude to the government and people of Bangladesh for opening their borders to the Rohingyas while so many borders in the world are closed.

- Solidarity expressed by the international community regarding the Rohingya issue has not been translated into sufficient support to the Rohingya people of Myanmar in Bangladesh, the UN chief said.

- He urged international community to step up to the plea and substantially increase financial support for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

- Insisting on the Rohingya peoples' right to return to Myanmar, Guterres said the repatriation should take place when the conditions for them to live with full dignity in their own country are there.

Soon after visiting the camps, Guterres, in a tweet, said that Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar to camps in Cox's Bazar want justice and a safe return home.

The UN secretary general, who reached Cox's Bazar on a special flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines at 8:45am, also said he heard "unimaginable accounts of killing and rape from Rohingya refugees who recently fled Myanmar".

The World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi are also visiting Rohingya communities and humanitarian workers in Cox's Bazar district to advocate for increased donor support.

Braving rains, a group of Rohingya refugees staged demonstration at Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhiya of Cox's Bazar earlier in the day, demanding safe return to their mother land.

After landing at the Cox's Bazar airport, the diplomats went directly to Hotel Sayeman where they were briefed by Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, our staff correspondent reports quoting Kamal Hossain, deputy commissioner of the district.

Bangladesh Government gave an outline to the UN seeking assistance on the Rohingya crisis, said the deputy commissioner.

Braving rain, hundreds of Rohingyas at Kutupalong Rohingya camp in Bangladesh on Monday, July 2, 2018, chant slogas "Not Bangalee, yes Rohingyas" and demand their safe return to their motherland in Myanmar. Photo: Masum Mollah

From there, the trio went to the Kutupalong Transit Camp and talked to the Rohingya refugees, visited a Women Friendly Space and a field hospital.

Since August last year, more than 700,000 Rohingya have taken shelter in the Cox's Bazar district from violence in Myanmar, making it the world's largest and fastest growing refugee camp, and putting pressure on the environment, existing infrastructure, and social services that were already constrained.