UN starts registering Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to help their return to Myanmar

The UN and the Bangladesh government have started formally registering hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who have fled a military crackdown in Myanmar. The move could help their eventual return, according to officials. More than 700,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya have escaped Buddhist-majority Myanmar since last August. Attacks by Muslim insurgents triggered a military offensive that the UN has likened to ethnic cleansing. Myanmar denies the accusations, saying it waged a legitimate counter-insurgency operation. The registration program started jointly by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Bangladesh government this week is aimed at creating a reliable database of refugees living in camps on Bangladesh’s southern coast, Reuters said.