‘SPEED UP VETTING OF REFUGEES’
UNHCR urges Bangladesh to admit refugees at its borders quickly
GENEVA
THE United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) urged Bangladesh on Tuesday to speed up vetting of up to 15,000 Rohingya refugees “stranded” near the border after crossing into the country from Myanmar and move them further inland to safer and better conditions.
Some 582,000 Rohingya are now known to have fled since violence erupted on Aug 25 in northern Rakhine State, where they lack access to food and healthcare, UN officials said.
“We are gravely concerned about the humanitarian conditions in Bangladesh, where thousands of new arrivals are stranded near the border,” UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said.
An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 have entered Bangladesh through the Anjuman Para border crossing point since Sunday night, many of whom described walking for about a week to reach the border, he said.
“We are advocating with the Bangladesh authorities to urgently admit these refugees fleeing violence and increasingly difficult conditions back home. Every minute counts, given the fragile condition they are arriving in,” Mahecic said.
The delay was due to screening by Bangladesh border guards, he said, emphasising this was the right of any government.
UN aid agencies have not had access to the shrinking Rohingya population in northern Rakhine State since the Aug 25 coordinated insurgent attacks on police posts and army campaign, which the UN rights office had likened to “ethnic cleansing”.
Jens Laerke, spokesman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said Rohingya in Rakhine State now faced a “desperate choice whether to stay or go”, not only due to the violence but also humanitarian needs.
Nearly 60 per cent of the 582,000 refugees who had fled Myanmar since Aug 25 were children, and thousands more were crossing each week, United Nations Children’s Fund spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said. Reuters