By RUSSELL CONTRERAS
Associated Press Writer
BOSTON – Tens of thousands of Burmese refugees are being forced into makeshift camps in Bangladesh and face widespread starvation unless they receive more humanitarian aid, according to an international human rights organization’s report released Tuesday.
The Physicians for Human Rights, based in Massachusetts, faulted Bangladesh authorities for “arbitrary arrests, illegal expulsion, and forced internment” of Burmese refugees as neighboring Myanmar prepares for elections later this year. Since the 1990s, thousands of the refugees have made their way to Bangladesh from Myanmar, which had experienced unrest resulting from its military junta.
The report, “Stateless and Starving: Persecuted Rohingya Flee Burma and Starve in Bangladesh,” also called the makeshift camps for unregistered refugees “open-air prisons” where children face severe malnutrition due to a lack of food aid and restricted movement outside of camps.