UNHCR warns over looming Rohingya refugee crisis

The UN has issued a warning over an expected surge of mostly Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees heading out for southeast Asia by the end of the month.
Earlier this year, a humanitarian crisis broke out when boatloads of Rohingyas trying to escape persecution in Myanmar were turned back or sent on their way from the shores of Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
During a press conference held in Geneva on Friday, the UNHCR called on regional governments to avoid a similar humanitarian crisis by implementing steps aimed at boosting search and rescue operations and creating safer places for disembarkation.
According to the agency, around 31,000 Rohingyas and Bangladeshis left from the Bay of Bengal by boat since the beginning of the year, a 34 percent rise from the same period in 2014. A total of 94,000 people are thought to have risked their lives partaking in such journeys since 2014. At least 1,100 more are thought to have drowned in the same time period.
Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, currently living in the western Burmese state of Rakhine, have been subject to systematic repression by extremist Buddhists since the country’s independence in 1948.