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Thousands of Myanmar refugees seeks refuge in India

India

Thousands have fled the violence in Myanmar, where a military junta has ruled since a coup on the 1st of February. The months following have seen escalating bloodshed and worsening attacks on civilians as a growing pro-democracy protest movement sweeps the country. Since the military took over, it has resulted over 800 deaths due to the violence of the coup.

 

Much of the violence today centers around the pro-democracy movement, but Myanmar has been torn by political, ethnic, and religious conflicts for years, leading well over a million refugees to flee the country and causing the internal displacement of hundreds of thousands more. The Tatmadaw has long persecuted Rohingya Muslims and ethnic-minority Christians, including with bombings, torture, and attempts to forcefully convert minorities to Buddhism.

Many refugees from Myanmar flee directly across the western border into India and Bangladesh or across the eastern border into Thailand. Some end up resettling as far away as the United States and Australia, but many others face decades of uncertainty in massive refugee camps like the one in southern Bangladesh that caught fire two months ago, displacing more than 45,000 refugees and killing at least eleven.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNRA) released a statement saying there are more than 60,700 displaced people, including women and children. 

Source: persecution.org

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