UN for Refugees warns of Rohingya refugees

UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has called for ramped-up support for an estimated 436,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar in the last month, warning that the massive influx of people seeking safety far outpaces capacities to respond.

"Their situation remains desperate, and we risk a dramatic deterioration if aid is not rapidly stepped up," Grandi said in a press release, following a visit to Kutupalong refugee camp and other areas along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border where people have made their own shelters on tiny slivers of land.

"Despite every effort by those on the ground, the massive influx of people seeking safety rapidly outpaced capacities to respond, and the situation has still not stabilised. More is needed, and fast, if we are to avoid further deterioration," Mr. Grandi said.

"They had seen villages burned down, families shot or hacked to death, women and girls brutalised. Many of the refugees said they would like to go home, but there needs to be an end to violence, and a restoration of rights inside Myanmar," he said.

"Solutions to this crisis lie within Myanmar. But for now, our immediate focus has to be to dramatically increase support to those who are so desperately in need," Mr. Grandi said, stressing the importance of a proper registration system that could help ensure everyone is eventually able to exercise the right to return.