YANGON: A UN official has urged Myanmar to grant aid workers “predictable, sustained access” to Rakhine state, where fighting between government troops and rebels has displaced nearly 33,000 people since late last year, saying lack of aid has cost lives.
Ursula Mueller, a UN assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said authorities had turned down her requests to meet those displaced by the conflict in a region barred to most aid groups since the fighting broke out.
“We need access – predictable, sustained access – to reach the people in need,” Muller told Reuters late on Tuesday, at the end of a six-day visit to the southeast Asian nation.
“If the assistance, including mobile clinics, cannot get to the people, they just don’t have the services and their needs are not being met and some people are dying.”
Reuters could not immediately reach a government spokesman to seek comment.
Rakhine has been in the global spotlight since 2017, after roughly 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing a military crackdown in response to militant attacks crossed into neighboring Bangladesh.
UN investigators have called for senior military officers to be prosecuted over allegations of mass killings, gang rapes and arson. The military denies widespread wrongdoing.
More recently, civilians have been caught up in clashes between the military and the Arakan Army, an insurgent group that recruits from the mainly Buddhist ethnic Rakhine population and is fighting for greater autonomy for the state.
During her visit, Mueller met senior officials in the capital, Naypyitaw, including state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi who said she was working toward “development and social cohesion” in Rakhine.
“I was pointing out the humanitarian needs that are existing that need to be urgently met,” she added.
Mueller also visited camps outside Sittwe, the state’s capital, where thousands of Rohingya have been confined since a previous bout of violence in 2012. Most lack citizenship and face curbs on movement and access to basic services.
Myanmar has been working with the UN on a strategy to close the camps, but it amounts to building new, more permanent homes in the same place rather than letting people return to areas from which they fled, Reuters reported last year.
Mueller, who is also a deputy coordinator for emergency relief, said she had discussed the strategy with officials.
“It’s not enough to erect buildings on the same site while the underlying causes are not addressed,” she added. “People have no freedom of movement. They are losing hope after seven years in this camp.”
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‘People are dying’: UN official urges aid access for Myanmar’s Rakhine state
‘People are dying’: UN official urges aid access for Myanmar’s Rakhine state
- Rakhine has been in the global spotlight since 2017, after roughly 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing a military crackdown in response to militant attacks
- UN investigators have called for senior military officers to be prosecuted over allegations of mass killings, gang rapes and arson
France bans 10 British far-right, anti-migration activists from entering
PARIS: France’s interior ministry said on Wednesday it has banned 10 British far-right activists from entering or staying in the country, after they carried out actions deemed to incite violence and seriously disturb public order on French territory.
The activists, identified as members of a group called “Raise the Colors” that was involved in a national flag-raising campaign, seek to find and destroy boats used to carry migrants and spread propaganda on France’s northern coast calling on the British public to join the movement to stop migration, according to the French interior ministry.
“Our rule of law is non-negotiable, violent or hate-inciting actions have no place on our territory,” French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez wrote on social media platform X on Wednesday.
The ministry said in a statement it had been informed of the group’s activities in December last year and that it had referred the matter to the relevant authorities, as the actions were likely to cause “serious disturbances” to public order.
“Raise the Colors” describes itself as a grassroots movement that began in the central English city of Birmingham, when a small group started tying national flags to lampposts in a show of national pride. It says the effort has since spread across the UK.
The widespread display of the red-and-white St. George’s Cross for England and the Union Jack for Britain has prompted concern among some migrant communities as a reflection of rising anti-immigration sentiment in the country, coinciding with a wave of protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers last year.
Neither the group nor the British Foreign Office immediately responded to Reuters requests for comment.
Immigration and the crossings of small boats carrying migrants from France have become a focal point for British voters and has helped propel Nigel Farage’s right-wing, anti-immigration Reform UK party, into a commanding opinion poll lead.
Farage last year in London met the leader of French far-right National Rally (RN) party, Jordan Bardella, who has accused France of being too soft on immigration.
The activists, identified as members of a group called “Raise the Colors” that was involved in a national flag-raising campaign, seek to find and destroy boats used to carry migrants and spread propaganda on France’s northern coast calling on the British public to join the movement to stop migration, according to the French interior ministry.
“Our rule of law is non-negotiable, violent or hate-inciting actions have no place on our territory,” French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez wrote on social media platform X on Wednesday.
The ministry said in a statement it had been informed of the group’s activities in December last year and that it had referred the matter to the relevant authorities, as the actions were likely to cause “serious disturbances” to public order.
“Raise the Colors” describes itself as a grassroots movement that began in the central English city of Birmingham, when a small group started tying national flags to lampposts in a show of national pride. It says the effort has since spread across the UK.
The widespread display of the red-and-white St. George’s Cross for England and the Union Jack for Britain has prompted concern among some migrant communities as a reflection of rising anti-immigration sentiment in the country, coinciding with a wave of protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers last year.
Neither the group nor the British Foreign Office immediately responded to Reuters requests for comment.
Immigration and the crossings of small boats carrying migrants from France have become a focal point for British voters and has helped propel Nigel Farage’s right-wing, anti-immigration Reform UK party, into a commanding opinion poll lead.
Farage last year in London met the leader of French far-right National Rally (RN) party, Jordan Bardella, who has accused France of being too soft on immigration.
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