By Ruma Paul
DHAKA (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees rallied in camps in Bangladesh on Sunday on the seventh anniversary of the military crackdown that forced them to flee, demanding an end to violence and safe return to Myanmar.
More than a million Rohingya live in squalid camps in southern Bangladesh with little prospect of returning home, where they are mostly denied citizenship and other rights.
Thousands more are believed to have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state in recent weeks, as fighting escalates between troops of the ruling junta and the Arakan Army, the powerful ethnic militia that recruits from the Buddhist majority.
Refugees, from children to the elderly, waved placards and chanted slogans in the camps in Cox’s Bazar, many wearing ribbons bearing the words ‘Rohingya Genocide Remembrance’.
“Hope is home” and “We Rohingya are the citizens of Myanmar,” the placards read.
“Enough is enough. Stop violence and attacks on the Rohingya community,” refugee Hafizur Rahman said.
The latest attacks are the worst violence against the Rohingya since a 2017 Myanmar military-led campaign, which the United Nations described as having genocidal intent, forced more than 73,000 to flee across the Bangladesh border.
Densely populated Bangladesh says repatriating the refugees to Myanmar is the only solution. Local communities have been increasingly hostile as funds for the Rohingya have dried up.
Bangladesh is in no position to accept more Rohingya refugees, de-facto foreign minister Mohammad Touhid Hossain told Reuters this month, asking India and other countries to do more.
Hossain also called for more international pressure on the Arakan Army to stop attacking the Rohingya in Rakhine state.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF has raised alarm over the worsening situation in Rakhine, citing increasing reports of civilians, especially children, being caught in the crossfire.
It said that seven years after the exodus from Myanmar “about half a million Rohingya refugee children are growing up in the world’s largest refugee camp”.
“We want to return to our homeland with all the rights. The United Nations should take initiatives to ensure our livelihood and peaceful coexistence with other ethnic communities in Myanmar,” Rohingya refugee Mohammed Taher said.
(Reporting by Ruma Paul; editing by Giles Elgood)
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