ANKARA
Turkey continues extending helping hand to the Rohingya Muslims who escape to Bangladesh after being exposed to violence in the Arakan (Rakhine) region of Myanmar.
Under this framework, Myanmar officials arranged a trip to Arakan region for the UN establishments and embassies in capital Yangon to observe the situation.
Visit to the region included 28 countries' embassy members and 6 UN establisments' representatives. Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN Human Rights special envoy who is visiting the country nowadays and will be publishing a report about the human rights in Myanmar in October, was one of the UN representatives of the group.
According to the information received from Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey that Turkish ambassador of Myanmar, Murat Yavuz Ates, attended the visit too.
Ates stated that it would be useful and easier if non-governmental organizations took more effective roles in order to support the region with humanitarian aid where thousands of people who are living in the camps. He added that Turkish Red Crescent is willing to send aid to the region.
The group headed to cities of Sittwe and Maung Taw and talked to displaced Buddhists there, then the same day, they held a meeting with the community in the Muslim based area. Next day, the group visited a camp where Muslims stay near the city centre of Sittwe and then the group held a meeting with the government officials in Sittwe.
At the meeting, Ates drew attention to the living conditions of Muslims who stay in the camps and stressed that Turkey is ready to help as much as it can.
More than 20 thousand Rohingya Muslims are currently living in the camps alongside Bangladesh border.
After the visit, the group went back to Yangon, capital of Myanmar.
