Alwaght- Over 40,000 unaccompanied child refugees are among Rohingya Muslims who fled ethnic cleansing in Myanmar and entered Bangladesh late August.
According to European Union Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides the refugee crisis in the Bangladeshi border city of Cox's Bazar as “the biggest in decades.”
More than 600,000 desperate Rohingya Muslims have fled the violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and crossed into Bangladesh since late August.
"I was shocked during the visit in the camps by the magnitude of what I saw. The magnitude of the influxes in a very short time, it's completely unique," Stylianides said.
He added that the number of unaccompanied minors now stood at "over 40,000," adding, "I think this figure alone can demonstrate the scale of the problem."
Aid agencies have raised concern over the appalling humanitarian crisis in the camps where refugees have faced acute shortages of shelter, water, healthcare and sanitation.
Stylianides told reporters in Dhaka that the situation in Cox's Bazar "requires a comprehensive and a coordinated humanitarian response."
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein has described the plight of Rohingya Muslims as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
The current crisis erupted on 25 August, when Myanmar’s army backed by gangs of Buddhist extremists brutally attacked Muslims in Rakhine state on the pretext of responding to the killing of security forces. In the ensuing operation, nearly 7,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed in what is clearly an organized campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
