UN refugee chief visits Myanmar this week

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, began his five-day visit to Myanmar this morning. This is the first visit by the head of the UN Refugee Agency to Myanmar since August 2017.

Grandi is scheduled to spend the first two days in Myanmar’s Rakhine State where he will visit communities in Sittwe, and the northern townships and will meet with state and district officials.

Later in the week, the UN refugee chief is scheduled meet senior Myanmar Government officials in the capital Nay Pyi Taw.

This week’s visit to Myanmar comes on the heels of the High Commissioner’s mission to Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh at the end of April. More than 900,000 stateless Rohingya refugees currently live in crowded settlements in Cox’s Bazar, of whom an estimated 741,000 fled from Myanmar since August 2017.

In the course of his stay in Myanmar, Grandi will follow up on a range of issues raised by refugees from Myanmar and will discuss Myanmar’s efforts to find comprehensive and durable solutions to the crisis in Rakhine State.