A Rohingya refugee woman who crossed the border from Myanmar a day before, carries her daughter and searches for help as they wait to receive permission from the Bangladeshi army to continue their way to the refugee camps, in Palang Khali, Bangladesh October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
GENEVA, October 17 (Reuters) - The U.N. refugee agency urged Bangladesh on Tuesday to speed up vetting of up to 15,000 Rohingya refugees "stranded" near the border after crossing into the country from Myanmar and move them further inland to safety and better conditions.
Some 582,000 Rohingya are now known to have fled since violence erupted on Aug. 25 in northern Rakhine state, where they also lack access to food and health care, U.N. officials said.
"We are gravely concerned about humanitarian conditions in Bangladesh, where thousands of new arrivals are stranded near the border," UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told a Geneva news briefing. "The issue is to do with screening, any sovereign government needs to know who is coming into its territory."
