Fresh pressure on Myanmar over Rohingyas

As Myanmar remains 'very slow' in creating conditions for the safe return of Rohingyas from Bangladesh, international pressure are mounting afresh on the country.

According to the Dhaka Tribune, a diplomat said, depending only on bilateral mechanisms to resolve the Rohingya crisis, no result has been reached till now.

On June 6, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, and UNDP, the UN Development Programme, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Myanmar government in Nay Pyi Taw.

The MoU aims at creating conducive conditions for the repatriation of refugees and for creating improved livelihoods for all communities living in Rakhine State.

Human Rights Watch has asked the UNSC to immediately refer the situation in Myanmar to the ICC.

During the first week of May, senior diplomats from the 15-member UNSC visited refugee camps in Bangladesh to see the situation of the more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar military abuses since August 2017.

Last month, the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Operations (ECHO) had provided $2.6 million to United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to ensure that both the Rohingya refugees and local Bangladeshis who live alongside them, can live in a safe and protective environment free from gender-based violence (GBV).

More than 700,000 Rohingya refugees are languishing in Bangladeshi refugee camps after fleeing a brutal Myanmar army campaign launched in August last year.

The United Nations had said the scorched-earth operation, which had left hundreds of villages burned to ash in Myanmar's Rakhine state, amounted to 'ethnic cleansing'.