UN chief slams Myanmar as ‘too slow’ in allowing Rohingya to return
- Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the lack of progress as a source of ‘enormous frustration’
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday criticised as “too slow” Myanmar’s efforts to allow the return of Rohingya Muslim refugees, describing the lack of progress as a source of “enormous frustration”.
More than 720,000 Rohingya are living in camps in Bangladesh after they were driven out of Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state during a military campaign in 2017 that the United Nations has described as ethnic cleansing.
Myanmar has agreed to take back some of the refugees in a deal reached with Bangladesh, but the United Nations insists that the safety of the Rohingya be a condition for their return.
“I feel an enormous frustration with the lack of progress in relation to Myanmar and with the suffering of the people,” Guterres told a news conference. “We insist on the need to create conditions for them to be willing to go back. Things have been too slow.”
Myanmar’s government this month postponed a planned visit by UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi who was due to travel to Rakhine.