UN Terms Rohingya Crisis as 'Most Acute'; Bangladeshi Filmmaker Asks India to Support Refugees

The United Nations (UN) at the Security Council session on November 2 called the situation of the over 800,000 Rohingya refugees as likely the “most acute” among that of the 65 to 66 million people forcibly displaced in the world, reports the IANS.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi has told the UN Security Council that the crisis of the Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar – where a genocide is underway against the minority community – is probably the most acute.

“There was much focus on the situation in Bangladesh – Rohingya refugees coming from Myanmar – and the way forward in that crisis which is probably the most acute at the moment,” Grandi told the media after the Security Council session.

The latest report of the UN Inter-Sector Coordination Group says around 605,000 Rohingyas had arrived in Bangladesh after fleeing violence in northern Rakhine State in Myanmar since August 25, when the Myanmar Army launched a crackdown in the state.

In India, nearly 40,000 Rohingya Muslims have sought refuge in camps, even though the BJP-led NDA government is hell-bent on deporting them. The government has called the Rohingyas “a threat to national security” and and even terrorists.

Grandi said the issue was ensuring that the Rohingya refugees “safely and in a dignified manner go back home.” But even though the problem of refugees is a humanitarian one, the solutions to it “are essentially political”, he said.

“There was support for the role the UNHCR can play in facilitating discussion on voluntary safe and dignified return if and when conditions are created in Rakhine State for this to happen,” Grandi said.

Meanwhile, Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostafa Sarwar Farooki has also called on India to support the Rohingyas as well as Bangladesh, which is witnessing an influx of the Rohingya refugees.

Farooki, who plans to make a film on the Rohingya persecution in Myanmar, told the IANS, “During this time, India should really stand beside Rohingyas and Bangladesh. India has a legacy of democracy and secular politics. As a democracy it should stand by the Rohingyas and it should stand by Bangladesh because India counts Bangladesh as its friend.”

Rohingyan refugees, who have endured several cycles of military violence beginning in 1978, are effectively stateless as they are denied citizenship under the 1982 Myanmar nationality law.

Myanmar claims that on August 25 Rohingya rebels had staged attacks against police and military posts, after which it had launched military operations.

The IANS also reports that access to northern Rakhine State – one of the least developed in Myanmar – has been tightly restricted, although a senior UN official flew over part of the terrorized area last month and reported seeing burnt-out villages.

India’s decision to deport the Rohingya refugees has drawn sharp criticism from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR).

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has called the military campaign against the Rohingya Muslim minority group as ethnic cleansing.

On November 1, the UN also called for voluntary repatriation of thousands of Rohingya refugees who have fled to Bangladesh and also free access of humanitarian aid in Myanmar's Rakhine state, the IANS said.

The UN Assistant High Commissioner (Protection), Volker Turk, issued the call as he met with members of the Myanmar government on a two-day visit to Nay Pyi Taw, according to IANS.

During the meetings, Turk urged Myanmar “to ensure a safe environment and the protection of all communities in Rakhine State" and also asked them to provide unrestricted access to allow humanitarian organisations "to provide life-saving aid and build confidence among communities in need.”

Turk also reiterated the refugees’ right to return and asked that they be assured a “safe, voluntary, and sustainable repatriation to their places of origin.”