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GENEVA: The UN refugee agency urged Bangladesh on Tuesday (Oct 17) to speed up vetting of up to 15,000 Rohingya refugees "stranded" near the border after crossing into the country from Myanmar and move them further inland to safety and better conditions.
Some 582,000 Rohingya are now known to have fled since violence erupted on Aug 25 in northern Rakhine state, where they also lack access to food and health care, UN officials said.
"We are gravely concerned about humanitarian conditions in Bangladesh, where thousands of new arrivals are stranded near the border," UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told a Geneva news briefing.
"The issue is to do with screening, any sovereign government needs to know who is coming into its territory."
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also released aerial footage on Monday (Oct 16) showing thousands of Rohingya Muslims after they crossed the Naf river into Bangladesh.
The video shot over the Palongkhali area shows refugees arriving by boat and walking through flooded fields.
They join some 536,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar since Aug 25, when coordinated Rohingya insurgent attacks sparked a ferocious military response, with the fleeing people accusing security forces of arson, killings and rape.
Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...-rohingya-refugees-stranded-at-border-9318432