Rohingya Issue: 22,000 fled to Bangladesh in one week: UN

At least 65,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar -- a third of them over the past week -- since the army launched a crackdown in the north of Rakhine state, the UN said yesterday.

The figure marks a sharp escalation in the numbers fleeing a military campaign which rights groups say has been marred by abuses so severe they could amount to crimes against humanity.

They also come the same day the UN's human rights envoy for Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, began a 12-day visit to probe violence in the country's borderlands that will take her to the army-controlled area.

“Over the past week, 22,000 new arrivals were reported to have crossed the border from Rakhine state," the UN's relief agency said in its weekly report.

“As of 5 January, an estimated 65,000 people are residing in registered camps, makeshift settlements and host communities in Cox's Bazaar" in southern Bangladesh, said the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.