U.K., Canada, Switzerland pledge to donate $33.5m for Rohingya refugees

The United Kingdom and Switzerland have pledged additional USD 24 million as assistance for the Rohingya refugees, who are fleeing to Bangladesh to escape the persecution of Myanmar's Rakhine State.

According to The Daily Star, while the U.K. decided to commit USD 15.78 million (£12 million), Switzerland will be increasing its aid by USD 8 million (CHF 8 million), read two separate press releases issued respectively by the British High Commission in Dhaka and the Embassy of Switzerland.

"Ethnic cleansing, sexual violence, starvation and the murder of children have no place in our world. Today's pledges are only just the start, and the world cannot afford to wait as innocent men, women and children continue to lose their lives," the U.K. said in the press note.

Switzerland has decided to increase its assistance in Bangladesh to CHF 8 million to address the growing needs in terms of protection, water, food and sanitation, the press release by Embassy of Switzerland said.

Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced to donate USD 9.5 million extra in humanitarian aid.

"Canada is deeply concerned about the urgent humanitarian and security crisis in Myanmar's Rakhine state, particularly the brutal persecution of the Rohingya Muslim people," Trudeau said, in a statement on his website.

More than 5,00,000 Rohingya people have fled to Bangladesh since the Myanmar security forces launched an operation in response to the alleged attacks by militants on August 25 against 30 police posts and a regimental headquarters.

Earlier this month, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmood Ali said a total of 3,000 Rohingya refugees were killed since the army crackdown.

On October 12, a United Nations report based on interviews conducted in Bangladesh found that brutal attacks against Rohingyas in the northern Rakhine state have been well-organised, coordinated and systematic, with the intent of not only driving the population out of Myanmar, but preventing them from returning to their homes.

The Rakhine state is home to the Rohingya community of Myanmar, ethnic Muslims, who have long faced persecution in the Buddhist-majority country, especially from the extremists.