To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to press the government of Burma to address the underlying causes of the Rohingya refugee crisis.
Answered on
20 June 2018
The Government considers the full implementation of the Rakhine Advisory Commission's recommendations the best route to addressing the underlying causes of the Rohingya refugee crisis. The UK ensured the UN Security Council's Presidential Statement of November 2017 urged all parts of the Government of Burma to work together to implement the Commission's recommendations swiftly and in full, and supports the work of the Advisory Board to the Implementation Committee for the Rakhine Advisory Commission. The Foreign Secretary has pressed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi to create the conditions in Rakhine State that would allow Rohingya refugees to return, and in their most recent conversation on 11 June underlined the importance of promoting reconciliation between the different communities of Rakhine. The UK continues to press the Burmese authorities to hold to account those responsible for human rights violations in Rakhine, to make clear there can be no impunity for those responsible for the violence that has caused almost 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh since 25 August 2017.