Japan offers $3.5mn aid for Rohingya refugees
Tokyo has offered aid of $3.5 million through global agencies, such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to help Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Saturday. The money will be used to provide for food and shelter, as well as to fund data analysis of the refugees’ maritime movements. In 2015, at least 25,000 people have been taken to boats from Myanmar and Bangladesh to countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, the UN estimates. The Rohingya people are considered “stateless entities” in mainly Buddhist Myanmar. Some 1.3 million Rohingyas live in the country's western Arakan state. Myanmar views them as illegal Bangledeshi immigrants and refuses to recognize them as an ethnic group.