Third Batch of Iran’s Aid Reaches Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s third consignment of humanitarian aid for the Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence at home in Myanmar has reached Bangladesh, the president of Iran’s Red Crescent Society (IRCS) said.
The consignment was loaded onto a cargo plane by the IRCS and headed to Bangladesh’s Port of Chittagong, Ali Asghar Peyvandi said.
Weighing around 30 tons, it included foodstuff and medical supplies, he added.
Peyvandi, who has traveled to Bangladesh to address the refugees’ situation there, also said that a total of 100 tons of foodstuff and basic hygiene and health items have been so far sent to Bangladesh by Iran for the persecuted Muslim people of Myanmar.
Rohingya Muslims have long faced severe discrimination in Myanmar and were the targets of violence in 2012 that killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people from their homes to camps for the internally displaced.
In September, the UN top human rights official accused Myanmar of carrying out “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” against Rohingya Muslims.
Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said the military’s “brutal” security campaign was in clear violation of international law, and cited what he called refugees’ consistent accounts of widespread extrajudicial killings, rape and other atrocities.