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Michelle Yeoh, star of Aung San Suu Kyi biopic, calls Rohingya conditions in Bangladesh ‘despicable’

Aung San Suu Kyi has faced widespread international criticism for not speaking out in defence of the Rohingya

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Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, distributes confectionery to Rohingya refugee boys in a school at Balukhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Photo: AP

Hollywood star Michelle Yeoh says she is appalled by the plight of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Myanmar into Bangladesh.

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Yeoh, a goodwill ambassador for the UN Development Programme, visited sprawling refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar on Saturday as part of a Malaysian delegation led by the Southeast Asian nation’s military chief.

The team visited a hospital set up by Malaysia and distributed relief goods in another camp.

“It is very important that we’re here, because what the Rohingya people are going through is despicable and it’s very, very tragic. It should not be allowed,” she said.



Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, right, with Malaysian Armed Forces Chief General Raja Mohamad Affandi, talk to a Rohingya refugee during their visit at Balukhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Photo: AP
Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, right, with Malaysian Armed Forces Chief General Raja Mohamad Affandi, talk to a Rohingya refugee during their visit at Balukhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Photo: AP
“Every single one of them deserves to have the human rights that should be given to them.”

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since August in what the UN has described as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar’s military has denied the charges, saying they were conducting “clearance operations” following attacks by Rohingya insurgents on police posts.

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Yeoh was most recently seen in sci-fi TV series Star Trek: Discovery.

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