UN braces for more Rohingyas to flee, seeks access to Rakhine in Myanmar

Mark Lowcock, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, reiterated the world body’s appeal for access to the population in northern Rakhine state saying that the current situation was “unacceptable”.

Muslim Rohingyas continue to flee Myanmar to Bangladesh and the United Nations is bracing for possible “further exodus”, the UN humanitarian aid chief said on Friday.

Rohingya refugees who arrived from Myanmar make their way to a relief centre in Teknaf, near Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. (REUTERS file photo)

Mark Lowcock, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, reiterated the world body’s appeal for access to the population in northern Rakhine state saying that the current situation was “unacceptable”.

“This flow out of Myanmar has not stopped yet, it’s into the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya (who are) still in Myanmar, we want to be ready in case there is a further exodus,” he told a news briefing in Geneva on Friday. “Half a million people do not pick up sticks and flee their country on a whim.”

An estimated 2,000 Rohingya are escaping Rakhine daily for Bangladesh, where 515,000 have fled since violence erupted on August 25, Joel Millman of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) told a separate briefing.