By Arul Louis

United Nations, Apr 13 (IANS): Members of the UN Security Council will visit Bangladesh and Myanmar on a fact-finding mission later this month to study the Rohingya crisis, according to Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

During the trip from April 26 to May 2, Council members will also visit Iraq which is slated to hold parliamentary elections next month.

About the Council visit to Myanmar and Bangladesh, Dujarric said Guterres hoped that "it will help refocus the attention of the international community on the plight of those Rohingya refugees who have fled to Bangladesh and the continuous need to fund the humanitarian operations".

Guterres expected that it could help improve the situation in Myanmar by helping the government implement the recommendations made by a panel headed by former Secretary-General Kofi Annan to resolve the Rohingya issue.

About 700,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh since August 2017 from Rakhine state after violent attacks by the military and vigilante groups following attacks on Myanmar security posts by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

The UN has described the retaliatory violence by the military and vigilantes as "ethnic cleansing".

Kuwait, an elected member of the Council, is providing the logistics for the mission.