UN says deadly Rohingya emigration will continue unless Myanmar ends discrimination ‎

The United Nations rights chief said on Friday said that as long as Myanmar continues discrimination against its Rohingya Muslim minority, the deadly pattern of migration by sea across the Bay of Bengal will continue. "Until the Myanmar government addresses the institutional discrimination against the Rohingya population, including equal access to citizenship, this precarious migration will continue," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

Thousands of Myanmar's Rohingyas have been fleeing persecution at home, and now their refugee boats are being turned away by neighboring countries, leaving them stranded at sea. Others had been locked up in jungle camps in Thailand. An untold number have died of starvation, sickness and abuse. Thousands of Rohingya as well as Bangladeshis are now believed to be abandoned at sea close to the shores of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. About 2,000 have landed on shore, but the three governments have turned away others. An estimated 6,000 are still stranded at sea.  (Source: AP/Reuters)