United Nations official says not safe yet for Rohingya return to Myanmar

Rohingya have long faced repression in Myanmar. They are widely dismissed as having migrated illegally from Bangladesh and are denied some of the most basic rights, including the freedom of movement.

By: AP | Updated: January 25, 2018 4:16 pm

UN official says not safe yet for Rohingya return

In 1982, nearly all Rohingya were stripped of their citizenship rights. (Source: AP Photo)

Attacks on Rohingya Muslims appear to be continuing in Myanmar and it is not yet safe for the hundreds of thousands living in refugee camps in Bangladesh to begin returning home, a senior United Nations official said. Many Rohingya want to return eventually to their villages in Myanmar, UNICEF deputy executive director Justin Forsyth said Wednesday during a visit to the immense Kutupalong refugee camp. But they fear for their safety if they were to go back now, he said.

“The situation isn’t safe for the returns to begin,” he said. “I spoke to one young woman who had been on the phone to her aunt in Rakhine in Myanmar. And they were attacking villages even today.” More than 680,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state beginning in August, after Myanmar security forces began “clearance operations” in their villages in the wake of attacks by Rohingya insurgents on police posts.