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Rohingya Refugee Count in Bangladesh Jumps to 270,000 | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Rohingya Muslim children attend religious school at a refugee camp outside Sittwe, Myanmar May 21, 2015. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun


The refugee crisis engulfing Myanmar and neighboring Bangladesh is far larger than previously believed, according to the latest data released by UN agencies on Friday in Geneva.

An estimated 270,000 million Rohingya Muslims have fled the deadly violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and have arrived in neighbouring Bangladesh over the past two weeks, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

According to dpa, the number jumped more than 100,000 above the previous estimate because many arrivals are camping along roads and fields, and aid groups only got a clearer picture of the situation over the past few days, UNHCR spokeswoman Duniya Aslam Khan told a press conference.

IOM spokesman Leonard Doyle added that there was a sharp increase in arrivals on Wednesday, as at least 300 boats arrived in the Bangladeshi fishing port of Cox’s Bazar.