UN expert slams India's reported expulsion of Rohingya refugees as 'outrageous'

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GENEVA

Beyza Binnur Donmez 
15.05.2025

Tom Andrews, UN special rapporteur on situation of human rights in Myanmar, calls on India to ‘repudiate unconscionable acts against Rohingya refugees’

Rohingya people

A UN human rights expert on Thursday slammed an incident in which Indian authorities allegedly forced Rohingya refugees off a naval vessel into waters off Myanmar, announcing an inquiry into what he called "unconscionable, unacceptable acts."

UN expert: Support Rohingya refugees following Indonesia

Dhaka Tribune
UNB
Publish : 23 Nov 2023,

File photo of Rohingyas. Photo: Dhaka Tribune

A UN expert on Thursday called for a regional emergency response to the growing number of desperate Rohingya refugees who continue to arrive in Indonesia in overcrowded vessels, as conditions in refugee camps in Bangladesh continue to deteriorate, where food rations have been significantly cut.

Bangladesh: UN experts decry devastating second round of rations cuts for Rohingya refugees

UNITED NATIONS

01 June 2023

GENEVA (1 June 2023) – UN experts condemned a second cut in food rations for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh effective today, after a funding shortfall of US$56 million compelled the World Food Programme to enforce the cuts.

The cuts will reduce the value of rations provided to Rohingya refugees to US$8 per month, or 27 cents per day.

The experts warned that the cuts will have devastating consequences for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and make life in the camps even more untenable. The experts implored UN Member States to urgently fund the humanitarian response in Bangladesh, ensuring the restoration of full rations for refugees.

Myanmar: UN expert decries launch of “shameful, catastrophic cuts” in food aid for Rohingya in Bangladesh

Shia Waves

2023 March 4

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Tom Andrews made an urgent appeal to Member States today to reverse “the shameful, catastrophic cuts” to food rations for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh that began to be implemented on 1st March.

“These rations cuts are a stain on the conscience of the international community,” said Andrews. “I have spoken with desperate families in the camps who have already had to cut back on essential food items due to a spike in prices. Reversing these cuts in food aid is literally a matter of life and death for Rohingya families,” the Special Rapporteur said.

UN expert slams upcoming 'fraud' election in Myanmar

 

By AFP
Published: September 23, 2022

The junta is looking 'to create the sense of legitimacy and inevitability,' says Thomas Andrews, UN's special rapporteur

  UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Tom Andrews gives a press conference during the 51th Human Rights Council in Geneva on Sept. 22. (Photo: AFP)

A UN expert on Thursday dismissed as fraudulent an upcoming election in Myanmar, accusing the junta of looking for a veneer of legitimacy and rebuking the international community for not doing enough to challenge the regime.

"The junta is preparing for what it describes as an election," Thomas Andrews, the UN's special rapporteur on the rights situation in Myanmar, told reporters in Geneva.

"This is not going to be an election. It is a fraud."

Myanmar's military seized power and toppled the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

The country has been in turmoil ever since, with fighting across swathes of the country and the economy in tatters even as the junta says it plans to hold fresh polls next August.

Myanmar: UN Expert Urges States To Impose Arms Embargo

SCOOP WORLD

Press Release: UN Special Procedures - Human Rights

Saturday, 8 May 2021,

GENEVA (7 May 2021) – The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, today welcomed the call by a broad number of civil society organizations to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar’s military junta, and encouraged States to take their own actions immediately.

“Stopping the flow of weapons and dual-use weapons technology into the hands of the military junta of Myanmar is literally a matter of life and death. There is no time to lose,” said Andrews.

“I applaud the efforts of more than 200 organisations to bring this to the attention of the UN Security Council. Action to stop the flow of deadly weapons into the hands of those who are using them to massacre their own people is needed now.

UN expert calls for emergency summit on Myanmar as situation ‘likely to get much worse’

ASSOCIATED PRESS OF PAKISTAN

Thu, 25 Mar 2021

File Photo

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 25 (APP):A UN human rights expert has called on the international community to hold an “emergency” summit of all the stakeholders in Myanmar, including the parliamentarians, who were democratically elected prior to February’s military coup.

Tom Andrews, the Special Rapporteur investigating human rights in Myanmar, in a statement on Thursday warned that the “pace and scope” of the international response to the military coup in the southeast Asian nation “is falling short of what is required to head off a deepening crisis”.

Only ‘following orders’, no defence for any Myanmar atrocities: UN expert

UN News
10 February 2021

Peace and Security

UN News/Nyi Teza,A scene of Yangon, the commercial hub of Myanmar.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar on Wednesday said that security forces in the country must “stand down before there are more casualties” among protesters, amid reports of use of lethal force against those demonstrating against last week’s military takeover. 

There are unconfirmed media reports that at least one individual, a woman, was shot in the head during protests on Tuesday. She is said to be in critical condition at a hospital in Yangon.

Int’l community must acknowledge its policy to Rohingya failed: UN expert

Prothum Alo------  

Prothom Alo English Desk

Updated: 11 December 2020, 11:36

It was reasonable for the Bangladesh government to seek to create options for the refugees who desire alternatives to the mega camps in Cox’s Bazar, said Thomas Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar

 

Rohingya camps south of Cox's Bazar in southeast Bangladesh that now make up the world's largest refugee settlement, home to more than 900,000 people. Balukhali camp, Bangladesh, on 28 January 2019Thomson Reuters Foundation

 
The UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Thomas Andrews on Thursday said the international community must acknowledge that after three years its policy with respect to the Rohingya refugees has failed, reports news agency UNB.

UN expert wants scrutiny of conditions at Bhasan Char

Aljazeera
11 Dec 2020

An estimated 1,642 Rohingya were moved to the flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal before the UN could assess the safety of the refugees.

Rohingya travel by boat to Bhasan Char island on December 4 [Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

A United Nations human rights expert has called for an independent assessment on the conditions at Bhasan Char, the remote island in Bangladesh where more than a thousand Rohingya were taken earlier this month, as he condemned the world’s “failure” to take action to help the refugees return home to Myanmar.

The 1,642 Rohingya refugees were moved to Bhasan Char island before the UN could even determine whether or not the island was “suitable to safely host this vulnerable population”, said Tom Andrews, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar.

UN experts urge probe of Rohingya killings in Bangladesh

Dhaka (AFP)
18 September 2019

UN human rights experts have raised new concerns about the treatment of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh following a deadly backlash over the killing of a ruling party official.

At an August 25 rally, some 200,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh marked two years since the exodus from Myanmar after a military crackdown | © AFP/File | MUNIR UZ ZAMAN  

The experts called for an “impartial” investigation into the deaths of at least six Rohingya men in gunfights with police after they were named as suspects in the killing of Omar Faruk, a youth wing official of the ruling Awami League.

UN expert: Suu Kyi’s role in Rohingya abuses still unclear

U.S. News
By Associated Press,   

Sept. 17, 2019,

 

A top U.N. investigator said Tuesday "it's still an open-ended question" about how much Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi could be implicated in human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims.

 

Marzuki Darusman, right, chairperson of the Independent International Fact-finding Mission on Myanmar speaks to the media about the main findings of the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar and the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar during a press conference, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP) (Associated Press)


GENEVA — A top U.N. investigator said Tuesday “it’s still an open-ended question” about how much Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi could be implicated in human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims.

UN rights expert calls for end to ‘purgatory’ of ‘international inaction’ facing Myanmar’s remaining Rohingya

UN News

UNHCR/Roger Arnold

11 March 2019

Rohingya families arrive at a UNHCR transit centre near the village of Anjuman Para, Cox’s Bazar, south-east Bangladesh after spending four days stranded at the Myanmar border with some 6,800 refugees. (file)

A humanitarian crisis fuelled by the suppression of basic human rights is continuing across Myanmar’s Rakhine state, a UN Human Rights Council-appointed expert said on Monday, in an appeal for alleged atrocities there to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

UN expert Lee discusses Rohingya issue with FM

UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee visits Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Sunday, Jan 20, 2019. Photo: Courtesy

UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee on Sunday met Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen and discussed issues related to Rohingya crisis, reports UNB.

Lee, who arrived here on Saturday, will visit Cox’s Bazar to see for herself the Rohingya situation there amid Myanmar’s continued denial to her access to Rakhine State.