UN calls on Bangladesh to allow AID to Myanmar refugees

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Refugee Agency is calling upon Bangladesh to allow provision of humanitarian assistance to Myanmar refugees that have entered its territory, a UN spokesman told reporters here on Tuesday.

“The UN Refugee Agency is appealing to the government of Bangladesh to ensure that assistance from non-governmental organisations continues to be provided to some 40,000 unregistered people who have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state,” China’s Xinhua news agency quoted Martin Nesirky, spokesperson for UN

Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, as saying at a daily briefing. “The agency is urging the government of Bangladesh to reconsider its decision in line with its long tradition of hospitality towards people who fled Myanmar over the years,” he said.

Violence broke out between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine state of northern Myanmar after a Buddhist woman was raped and murdered on May 28. Since then, thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been fleeing

into neighbouring Bangladesh to escape violence.

Last week, Bangladeshi authorities ordered three non-governmental organisations to stop their activities in and around unofficial refugee camps in southeast Bangladesh. Nesirky said that the UN Refugee Agency is watching closely developments in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state, following reports of renewed violence over the weekend.

According to the spokesman, the UN and its humanitarian partners have drawn up a response plan to assist some 80,000 people who have been displaced or are otherwise affected in the Rakhine state since inter-communal clashes broke out in early June.

“For its part, the World Food Programme (WFP) says that its food aid was distributed to nearly 103,000 people in June and 80,000 people in July in Rakhine state,” Nesirky added.