Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has spoken of a „deeply disturbing“ experience during a visit to the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh. The US actress and special envoy of the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR today addressed a press conference at the Kutupalong camp to the Rohingya resident there and said, „How you have been treated makes us all ashamed.“
She had met families who had been persecuted all her life and talked about being treated like cattle, Jolie said. „The most tragic thing about this situation is that we can not say we were not warned,“ she said, referring to the decades-long persecution of the Rohingya ethnic group in their native Myanmar.
UN: „Continuing Genocide“
Jolie arrived in Bangladesh yesterday. Tomorrow she wanted to meet in the capital Dhaka with the Prime Minister of the South Asian country, Sheikh Hasina, and the Foreign Minister A.K. Meet Abdul Momen.
Myanmar must recognize the rights of the Rohingya and make their return possible, said Jolie against the background of countless makeshift dwellings. As long as that does not happen, however, it must be ensured that the refugees could live in dignity in Bangladesh. However, the country has limited resources and must not be allowed to bear this responsibility alone.
Around one million Rohingya live in and around Kutupalong – the most populous and densely populated refugee camp in the world – in the Cox’s Bazar district of southeastern Bangladesh. More than 700,000 of them fled military violence in neighboring Myanmar, formerly Burma, within months of the end of 2017. UN investigators speak of a „continuing genocide“ of the Muslim minority with at least 10,000 deaths.
