The exodus of Rohingyas began on Aug. 25, after the Myanmar
army launched an offensive in Rakhine state following an attack by Rohingya
rebels on multiple government posts.
"Their situation remains desperate, and we risk a dramatic
deterioration if aid is not rapidly stepped up,” said UN High Commissioner for
Refugees Filippo Grandi in a press conference in Dhaka.
He said that the situation of the Rohingyas had still not
been stabilized and more humanitarian aid was required to prevent conditions
from worsening.
On Sunday, after visiting the Kutupalong Rohingya camp in the
Cox’s Bazar district, in southeastern Bangladesh, Grandi said he met deeply
traumatized people who were faced with enormous difficulties.
"They had seen villages burned down, families shot or hacked
to death, women and girls brutalized. Many of the refugees said they would like
to go home, but that needs an end to violence,” he said.
"Solutions to this crisis lie within Myanmar,” Grandi said.
He then stated that all Rohingyas in Bangladesh were
refugees, all though not all of them enjoy official refugee status.
"They fled from discrimination, persecution, violence,
conflict – these are all causes which qualify somebody who flees from them as
refugees,” Grandi said.
According to UN estimates, around 436,000 members of the
Muslim minority Rohingya community have arrived in Bangladesh over the last one
month since the crisis began.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said that
ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas could be taking place in Myanmar.
Source: Herald Tribune