Bangkok: The head of the UN refugee agency has urged Myanmar to grant citizenship to the Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority in the Asian country where sectarian violence has displaced tens of thousands since 2012.
On his first official visit to Southeast Asia, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi this week met communities in the towns of Sittwe and Maungdaw in Myanmar's Rakhine state, home to a large population of Rohingya Muslims.
![Four-year-old Rosmaida Bibi, who suffers from severe malnutrition, with her mother Hamida Begum's lap. She cannot grow ...](http://web.archive.org./web/20170708235931im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/7/a/e/y/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gx7acq.png/1499496707370.jpg)
He also met Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's de facto leader and Nobel Peace laureate.
Rakhine State in west Myanmar has seen the most serious religious violence in the predominantly Buddhist nation since the military began to end its decades of strict rule, with hundreds of Rohingya Muslims killed and more than 140,000 people displaced there in communal unrest in 2012.
Tensions have risen again in recent days after village administrators were murdered and troops killed three people while clearing a Rohingya militant camp.
"It's important to work on granting citizenship to the Muslim community, that has been deprived of citizenship for many years," Grandi told reporters in Bangkok on Friday.
Myanmar's government regards the approximately one million Rohingya as illegal migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and denies them citizenship, even though Rohingya families have lived there for generations.
Grandi also said that more investment was needed in the region.
![Four-year-old Rosmaida Bibi walks with the help of her mother at the Dar Paing camp for Rohngyas in Rakhine State.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170708235931im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/7/a/f/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gx7acq.png/1499496707370.jpg)
"It is one of the poorest states in the Union of Myanmar and there's an urgent need for development investments that must be inclusive of the two communities," he said.
In October, Rohingya insurgents launched deadly attacked on Myanmar guard posts near the Bangladesh border, provoking a military crackdown in which the United Nations says hundreds were killed, more than 1000 homes burned and some 75,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh.
![United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi at a press conference Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170708235931im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/7/a/e/e/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gx7acq.png/1499496707370.jpg)
The United Nations has established a fact-finding mission to investigate crimes against humanity allegedly committed by Myanmar's military during the counter-offensive.
Ms Suu Kyi's administration has rejected the allegations and opposes the mission.
![Rosmaida Bibi, foreground, sits on a pile of bamboo trees with other children of her age at the Dar Paing camp.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170708235931im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/7/a/f/j/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gx7acq.png/1499496707370.jpg)
In the latest unrest in the region, a Rohingya Muslim man was killed and six wounded when they were attacked by a mob of Rakhine Buddhists this week.
In Thailand, more than 102,000 refugees from Myanmar live in nine camps along the Thai-Myanmar border.
![Vendors wait for customers at a local bazaar in Pindaya, southern Shan State, Myanmar.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170708235931im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/7/a/f/8/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gx7acq.png/1499496707370.jpg)
Most are members of the Karen ethnic minority who fled conflict in Myanmar over the past 30 years.
The Thai government was preparing to help about 200 camp residents to return to Myanmar in the near future, Grandi said, following the voluntary repatriation of 71 Myanmar refugees in October.
Grandi was due to fly to Bangladesh on Saturday.
Reuters
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