A Scottish charity has been on the ground helping those who have been driven out of Myanmar
A Scottish charity has outlined the horrific realities facing Rohingya refugees.
The Muslim minority group have been forced to flee their homes in Myanmar after a campaign of ethnic violence.
Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (Sciaf) has raised more than £160,000 to help the crisis so far, and director Alistair Dutton has visited the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh.
“I don’t know who’s guilty of what but what has happened are crimes against humanity,” he said.
“The chopping people up, shooting them, burning bodies, torching villages, stealing belongings and driving people out their country – these are crimes against humanity whoever perpetrated them.”
Dutton warned the crisis could go on for years unless a solution is found and said he had heard overwhelming reports of violence and persecution.
Over 646,000 Rohingya refugees have now fled over the border into Bangladesh, such as Shawkat Ava who is five months pregnant and living in Kutupalong refugee camp with her husband.
"The military attacked us in the night,” he said. “We saw what they did with our own eyes. Our village was burning. They asked boys who were around 10 and 11-years-old to stand in a line. Then they chased them with machetes and chopped them in two. One old neighbour of ours was shot. Then they chopped him with a machete and then they burned him alive. He was just an old man."
