270,000 Rohingya Have Fled Myanmar, U.N. Says<br />8, 2017<br />HONG KONG — The number of Rohingya who have fled fighting in western Myanmar has climbed sharply to 270,000, placing<br />a huge strain on camps in Bangladesh where they are seeking shelter, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday.<br />Myanmar said that Refugees are now squatting in makeshift shelters<br />that have mushroomed along the road and on available land in the Ukhiya and Teknaf areas.<br />Two refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar in southeast Bangladesh<br />that were already home to nearly 34,000 Rohingya refugees "are now bursting at the seams," Duniya Aslam Khan, a spokeswoman for the refugee agency, said in a statement.<br />Senator John McCain of Arizona also wrote to Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi this week, noting<br />that he had been her friend and supporter and calling on her "to take an active role in putting a stop to this worsening humanitarian crisis as it spreads throughout the country." The most recent surge of refugees came after a Rohingya militant group attacked several police posts and a military base in Rakhine on Aug. 25.<br />The refugees in Bangladesh are mostly women and children who have arrived by foot, the United Nations refugee agency said.<br />Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Myanmar<br />and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate for her long struggle against military rule, has come under increasing international criticism for the plight of the Rohingya.<br />Previously, Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate, had also<br />confronted Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi on Twitter over the violence against the Rohingya.
