LONDON (APP) – Pakistan’s Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist Malala Yousafzai has expressed solidarity with Rohingya Muslims.
“Today and every day, I stand with the Rohingyas, and I encourage people everywhere to do so”.
Malala called on the leaders of Myanmar and the world to take immediate action to halt the inhuman persecution of Burma’s Muslim minority Rohingya people.
“The Rohingyas deserve citizenship in the country where they were born and have lived for generations. They deserve equal rights and opportunities. They deserve to be treated like we all deserve to be treated – with dignity and respect”.
Southeast Asia´s migrant crisis unfurled at the start of May, leaving thousands from Bangladesh and Myanmar’s Rohingya minority trapped at sea.
Since then, around 4,500 of them have returned to shore, but the UN estimates around 2,000 others are still on the water.
Nearly 1,000 have been taken to Myanmar´s western Rakhine state, which borders Bangladesh, after being found by Myanmar´s navy in two boats in the Bay of Bengal.
Neither nation initially showed a willingness to accept them and rights groups are concerned some could be pushed to the wrong side of the border.
But they now appear to have agreed on the nationality of some of the rescued migrants, who come from a first boatload of more than 200 found in late May.
