UN appeals for international action on Rohingya crisis

UNITED NATIONS - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday that the international humanitarian appeal for the Rohingya crisis "remains significantly underfunded at 33 percent".

Noting that the massive refugee emergency that began one year ago in Rakhine State, Myanmar, has become "one of the world's worst humanitarian and human rights crises", the UN chief said that "the response to the crisis must be a global one".

Speaking at a Security Council meeting to mark one year of the refugee exodus from Myanmar, Guterres said that "much more must be done to alleviate the very real risks to life from current and impending monsoons".

The secretary-general expressed his gratitude to World Bank President Jim Yong Kim for mobilizing almost half a billion dollars in grant-based support for Rohingya refugees and host communities.

"The grant-based assistance approved by the Asian Development Bank is also crucial in meeting medium-term needs and providing assistance toward lifesaving priorities," he said.

Noting that "conditions are not yet met for the safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees to their places of origin or choice", the UN chief said that he wants members of the Security Council to join him in urging the Myanmar authorities to cooperate with the UN, and to ensure immediate, unimpeded and effective access for its agencies and partners.

"Access is critical to meet the enormous needs, and to allay the fears of refugees who would like to return home," he said.

Meanwhile, Cate Blanchett, a goodwill ambassador of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), on Tuesday asked for efforts to help Rohingya refugees.

"The focus of all our efforts must be to provide much-needed support inside Bangladesh while working to ensure conditions in Myanmar are conducive to return," the Oscar-winning Australian actress told the UN Security Council.

"The many refugees that I spoke with consider Myanmar their home but they have real, deep fears about returning there," she said.

Blanchett visited Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh in March. "Nothing could have prepared me for the extent and depth of the suffering I saw," she said of the trip.

Citizenship

The denial of their rights to move, their right to marry, their right to work, their right to healthcare and education renders them among the most vulnerable people on the planet, she said. "Refugees move back home when it is safe and secure to do so. The Rohingya cannot return to the very conditions they were forced to flee."

Currently, about 900,000 Rohingya refugees are living in makeshift shelters in Bangladesh, 700,000 of them have fled Myanmar during the past 12 months.

Blanchett stressed the importance of citizenship for the Rohingya refugees.

"A clear pathway to full citizenship is essential. This is not a luxury. This is not a privilege. This is a basic right that all of us here enjoy. A right that the Rohingya do not have."

Xinhua

(China Daily 08/30/2018 page11)