Rohingya refugees in humanitarian crisis.

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Rohingya refugees overtake 2016 Mediterranean migrant numbers in ‘unprecedented’ humanitarian crisis.



The mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims fleeing Burma in just under three weeks is now triple the number of refugees who have tried to enter Europe across the Mediterranean so far this year, leaving aid agencies overwhelmed by the crisis.

An estimated 370,000 have escaped from Burma’s northern Rakhine state to overcrowded Bangladeshi refugee camps since August 25, compared to 128,012 people seeking to cross the Mediterranean since January.

Burma’s government has admitted that 176 out of 471 ethnic Rohingya villages are now empty.

Antonio Guterres, UN secretary-general,on Wednesday called on authorities in Burma to end the violence against the Rohingya and acknowledged the situation there is best described as ethnic cleansing.

The humanitarian situation in Burma was "catastrophic," Mr Guterres said, and called on all countries to do what they could to supply aid.

The Burmese government said on Wednesday its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will skip next week's UN General Assembly meetings, and give a domestic speech to address the crisis, amid growing international outrage at her refusal to condemn the killings.

Rohingyas have said their homes were set on fire and family members shot, slashed or burned to death. “This is the fastest growing refugee crisis in the past five years, with serious human rights concerns,” a UNHCR spokesperson told the Telegraph.

Roland Oliphant: The scale of the Rohingya crisis 'is mindblowing'

Children 'burned alive' say Rohingya refugees.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017...grant-numbers/