KOLKATA, India — Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday called for international pressure on Myanmar to take back hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have sought shelter in her country to escape military-led violence. Hasina said Bangladesh gave shelter to the fleeing Rohingya on humanitarian grounds despite not being rich, but they should return to Myanmar. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the speech. About 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state since last August and are living in squalid camps across the border in Bangladesh. The Rohingya face official and social discrimination in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, which denies most of them citizenship and basic rights because they are considered immigrants from Bangladesh.

Source: National Post May 25, 2018 11:37 UTC