UN calls for global solidarity ahead of pledging conference on Rohingya

Senior UN officials issued a joint statement on Monday on the refugee crisis in Bangladesh, urging the international community to intensify efforts to bring a peaceful solution to the plight of the Rohingya.

The call was made by Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, and William Lacy Swing, Director-General for the International Organisation for Migration, IOM.

"We call on the international community to intensify efforts to bring a peaceful solution to the plight of the Rohingya, to end the desperate exodus, to support host communities and ensure the conditions that will allow for refugees’ eventual voluntary return in safety and dignity," the statement said.

They underscored that Bangladesh has kept its borders open, offering safety and shelter to fleeing families, saying, "The refugees are fully dependent on humanitarian assistance for food, water, health and other essential needs as basic services are under severe strain and some sites lack access to potable water and sanitation facilities, raising health risks for both the refugees and the hosting communities."

"The efforts must be scaled up and expanded to receive and protect refugees and ensure they are provided with basic shelter and acceptable living conditions. Every day more vulnerable people arrive with very little, if anything, and settle either in overcrowded existing camps or extremely congested makeshift sites," the statement continued.

It announced that the ministerial-level pledging conference, set to be held in Geneva on 23rd October, organised by OCHA, IOM and UNHCR and co-hosted by the European Union and Kuwait, will provide governments with an opportunity to show their solidarity and share the burden and responsibility.

Since late August, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya trying to escape discrimination and persecution in Myanmar’s Rakhine state have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, sparking the world’s fastest-growing humanitarian emergency, according to the United Nations