'No comments' from Angelina Jolie after visit to Rohingya camps in Bangladesh

Dhaka, Feb 5: Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, the Special Envoy for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is on a 3-day visit to Cox Bazaar to assess the humanitarian needs of the Rohingya refugees and critical challenges facing Bangladesh as a host country.

Angelina Jolie's visit comes ahead of a new appeal for the humanitarian situation in Bangladesh - the 2019 Joint Response Plan - to raise $920 million to meet the basic needs of Rohingya refugees and the communities so generously hosting them.

International Conference on Rohingya Muslims:

The Free Rohingya Coalition (FRC), a leading global activist group led by and for the Rohingya people, is set to host a two-day international conference at Barnard College in New York City from February 8-9.

At the international conference, the FRC will call for accountability and protection for national minorities in Burma (Myanmar), said a press release from the activist group posted on its website on February 1. The two-day webcast LIVE event will be held at Barnard College.

"On September 18, 2018, the United Nations International Independent Fact-Finding Mission released a 440-page report at the Human Rights Council in Geneva that found 'overwhelming evidence' that Myanmar, now run jointly by disgraced human rights icon Aung San Suu Kyi and the country's military, is committing the gravest crimes in international law," the press release said.

Angelina Jolie's first visit to Bangladesh

This is Special Envoy Angelina Jolie's first visit to Bangladesh. Jolie has also met with displaced Rohingya people during a prior visit to Myanmar in July 2015 and in India in 2006. The 43-year-old made no immediate public comment, but Cox's Bazar district deputy police chief Ikbal Hossain told AFP that Jolie will be visiting more camps on Tuesday.

Aerial view of Rohingya camp Kutapalong

Bangladesh has been heavily affected by the influx of more than 730,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar since August 2017. The majority of refugees - more than 620,000 people - live in Kutapalong, the largest refugee settlement anywhere in the world today. Image Courtesy: @Refugees

Rohingyas detained in Tripura

Seven Rohingya children detained by the security forces from a railway station in northern Tripura adjoining Assam, at Dharmanagar, Sunday, Feb. 03, 2019. (PTI Photo)

Unchiprang refugee camp

Rohingya refugees shout slogans against repatriation at Unchiprang refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, in Bangladesh, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. About 1,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees demonstrated Thursday at a camp in Bangladesh against plans to repatriate them to Myanmar, from where hundreds of thousands fled army-led violence last year. AP/PTI