The international community must help ensure that Rohingya refugees are not forced back to Myanmar as long as they remain at risk of serious human rights violations following the army's vicious campaign of ethnic cleansing, Amnesty International said yesterday.

The international communality's solidarity must match Bangladesh's efforts in dealing with the Rohingya refugee crisis, says the chief of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Dhaka yesterday sought support from the United Nations to ensure the repatriation of Rohingyas who have fled to Bangladesh

Rohingya refugees arriving in Bangladesh amid a fresh exodus from strife-torn Myanmar have described whole villages being emptied and thousands marching to the border as security forces redouble efforts to drive remaining Muslims from their homes.

Myanmar's promise to take back the Rohingyas, who have taken refuge in Bangladesh, looks empty and seems to be a tactic to ease international pressure. This is reflected in the contents of a hasty statement put on the official website of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi hours after Myanmar Union Minister U Kyaw Zeya concluded his Dhaka visit.

Dhaka is cautiously examining Myanmar's proposal to take back Rohingyas and will keep its doors open for resolving the crisis through international means.

The foreign diplomats and UN officials, who were taken on a tour to conflict-ridden Rakhine State on Monday, want Myanmar to move quickly for voluntary, dignified and safe return of the Rohingyas who fled violence to Bangladesh.

The government starts shifting of 26,000 Rohingyas from Naikhongchhari area of Bandarban to Balukhali camp in Cox’s Bazar.

A Rohingya refugee has died in what is believed to be landmine explosion on the other side of Bandarban border, local authorities says.

Myanmar yesterday formally proposed taking back the Rohingyas sheltered in Bangladesh but offered no specifics on how the repatriation of such a massive refugee population should take place. Bangladesh, on the other hand, proposed a bilateral agreement to facilitate the repatriation process and handed over a draft of the proposed deal to a visiting minister of the neighbouring country.

An estimated 7,500 Rohingya children in the squalid camps in Cox's Bazar are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, said Unicef as it launched yesterday a $76.1 million appeal for its emergency humanitarian response to the Rohingya crisis.

Six-year-old Jashim sat, dressed in a grey T-shirt and trousers smeared with mud, amid piles of donated clothes strewn along the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf road. He suddenly started running after a slow moving car.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said people will eat one meal a day and share another with the distressed Rohingyas, if necessary.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has termed the decision of forming joint working group by Bangladesh and Myanmar to repatriate the Rohingya refugees as an “uncertain process.”

Unicef has appealed for USD76.1 million emergency humanitarian aid for Rohingyas, who fled to Bangladesh following ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.

The inking of the investment protection agreement (IPA) between the European Union and Myanmar is put off until an unknown date.

As the sun's first light fell across the hills of Balukhali in Ukhia, a frailly built Mohammad Syed could be seen trying his best to walk quicker with the help of a wooden stick.

The World Food Programme will provide food support to the five lakh Rohingyas, who have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state, until they are repatriated, Relief and Disaster Management Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya yesterday said.

A Myanmar delegation is coming to Dhaka tonight to discuss repatriation of the refugees who have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Rakhine State.

Unicef will establish more than 1,300 new learning centres for Rohingya children who have fled Myanmar violence to Bangladesh since August 25.