2018年CRI UN Security Council members visit Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

A delegation 1 of UN Security Council members are now in Bangladesh to assess for themselves the Rohingya refugee situation.

The visit comes after the world body earlier in the month said Myanmar is not ready to receive returning refugees, despite Myanmar's pledge that it will do its best to repatriate 2 the refugees.

The UN Security Council delegation is scheduled to visit the capital Dhaka and refugee camps in the south of Bangladesh. They will then cross over into Myanmar on Monday.

More than one million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are currently believed to be in Bangladesh.

Some 670,000 of them arrived following deadly attacks by Rohingya militants 3 on security posts in August last year. The attacks were reportedly met with severe retribution by Myanmar government forces and militia 4.

Bangladesh is providing humanitarian 5 aid to the Rohingya refugees.

But the United Nations is warning that its Joint 6 Response Plan for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis has only received nine percent of the funding it needs. More than 950 million U.S. dollars is still required to meet the needs of some 1.3 million people.

Ursula Mueller, the U.N.'s Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said in early April that conditions in Myanmar are not conducive 7 to the refugee return, citing a lack of factors including health care and basic protection for their safety.

The warning comes despite the efforts being made in Myanmar to allow the refugees to return to the country's Rakhine State, the region most seriously affected 8 by the violence last August.

Two reception centers have been built to receive returnees arriving either by road, or by boat.

"Staff members from the reception center will first check their identities, and then give them special cards that provide them with temporary citizenship 9. The refugees will then undergo health checkups including vaccinations 10, and receive daily necessities. After living in the shelters at the reception center for a couple of days, they will move to a transfer camp," says Phyo Wai Than, who is in charge of the reception center set up to receive refugees arriving by boat.

The transfer camp consists of 625 houses and will house an estimated 30,000 refugees.

"The construction work of the transfer camp will be completed by the end of May. Currently, there are no refugees living here, and we will further improve the facilities. But the basic conditions to shelter the refugees are already available," says Tin Soe, an engineer who took part in the construction of the transfer camp.

The refugees receiving temporary citizenship cards will reportedly get their official citizenship in five months.

"In 2015, I applied 11 for and received the temporary citizenship card. The relevant authorities also gave me the documents I needed for an ID card with official citizenship. My parents and grandparents who live in Myanmar have those documents as well. I believe that as long as the documents are complete, you can successfully receive official citizenship," says Elfda Alumba, a refugee who has returned to the Rakhine State.

Authorities have begun to reconstruct the villages destroyed by the violence. They are also reportedly working to improve the local infrastructure 12, and create jobs for the returning refugees.