Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has issued a new call for Myanmar to take back the some 420,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in the country.
Hasina, speaking to Bangladeshi activists in New York where she is attending the UN General Assembly, also called for greater international pressure on Myanmar over the new crisis which has unfolded in the past three weeks, media reports said.
"We have told Myanmar, they are your citizens, you must take them back, keep them safe, give them shelter, there should not be any oppression and torture," she told a meeting late Tuesday in New York.
The prime minister said Bangladesh was making diplomatic efforts to persuade Myanmar to take back the refugees.
While Bangladesh has earned international praise for opening its doors to the Rohingyas, aid agencies have warning of a growing humanitarian crisis as authorities struggle to provide even basic facilities for the new arrivals.
The 420,000 now in makeshift shelters around the border town of Cox's Bazar have added to about 300,000 Rohingya who moved into camps in the region following earlier waves of violence in Myanmar.
© AFP