Rohingya refugees demand favorable conditions in Burma to return to the UN

Rohingya refugees have demanded this Tuesday that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachalet, get involved to provide favorable conditions in Burma to allow their repatriation.

Bachalet, who is on her first official visit to Bangladesh, has met with officials, civil society representatives and Rohingya refugees, who shared their experiences with them.

“They described their grievances, their pains, how they left and lost everything they had… their livelihood and their loved ones,” the UN representative has explained.

The young people told Bachalet of their desire to return to their country with citizenship rights: “When our rights are respected, we can have our livelihood again, and we can have land, and we can feel that we are part of the country,” they said, according to a UN statement.

“The UN is doing its best to support them. We will continue to do so,” Bachalet has said. “But we also have to address the deep roots of the problem. We have to deal with that and make sure that they can return to Burma, when the conditions for safety and voluntary return are in place,” he has added.

For his part, Khin Maung, a Rohingya youth leader, has criticized the lack of action on the part of the institution, in statements to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency.

“We see that the UN’s role only concentrates on taking information, issuing statements and providing mere assurances. I will never believe that such a powerful platform of world leaders needs so much time to create an environment in Myanmar for the sustainable repatriation of the stateless Rohingya,” he has denounced.