UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has voiced concern over the plight of Muslim Rohingya refugees, most of them stranded in Bangladesh, urging Myanmar to ensure their “safe” return home.
Speaking at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Thailand’s capital city Bangkok on Sunday, Guterres said he remained “deeply concerned” about the conditions of the Rohingya Muslims.
More than 740,000 Rohingya refugees are living in dire living conditions in makeshift refugee camps, mainly in Bangladesh, after fleeing their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine State in the wake of a state-sponsored military crackdown in 2017.
Guterres said Myanmar is responsible to “ensure a conducive environment for the safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable repatriation of refugees” to their ancestral homeland in Rakhine state bordering Bangladesh.
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The secretary-general also called on Myanmar “to ensure humanitarian actors have full and unfettered access to areas of return.”
Myanmar’s defacto leader, Suu Kyi, listened on as Guterres spoke.
Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as citizens.
Despite repeated efforts by the UN and endless criticism by rights groups and leaders of the international community, Myanmar has refused to change its approach towards the Rohingya.
The country says it only allows back those who agree to a bureaucratic status below full citizenship and if they agree to live under tight guard after their villages were incinerated.
Much of Rakhine remains largely closed to aid workers and journalists, who can only visit on tightly controlled, military-chaperoned trips.
Suu Kyi has come under fire for failing to use her moral force to defend Rohingya after the 2017 military crackdown.
UN investigators have gathered ample evidence to support the Rohingya Muslims’ case in international courts.
They strongly believe that the systematic persecution and killing of the Rohingya amounts to genocide.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
