ROHINGYA WARNING
REFUGEES fleeing ethnic cleansing in Myanmar could become radicalised if they feel abandoned by the international community, a charity boss warns.
More than 5,000 Rohingya people escaping persecution have settled in Bangladesh, where a series of 12 squalid settlements in the Cox’s Bazar region are fast becoming the world’s biggest refugee camp.
Leaders globally dubbed it the “world’s most urgent crisis” with thousands facing starvation and disease.
Edouard Beigbeder of Unicef said: “We need to give them hope for the future. If you don’t give hope there’s a danger there will be an element of extremism.”
He said it is important to settle, educate and protect them. Over 800,000 Rohingya Muslims have left Myanmar’s Rakhine State amid claims they are being persecuted by the military. Some had to carry frail relatives over the border.
Amir Hakim, 50, and his cousin Hamidir, 25, hauled mother Fulmuti, 85, from their home in Myanmar’s Buchidong district after two of his friends were killed.
They hid in the jungle for eight days, surviving on bananas, before crossing the border.
Myanmar’s de facto leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has been criticised for failing to denounce alleged murder, torture and rape by troops.
Help kids in the crisis at Unicef.org.uk/rohingya.