UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has urged Bangladesh to halt plans for the repatriation of more than 2,200 Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

In a statement, the UN Human Rights Office has said that forcibly returning them to their home country would be in violation of international law and put their lives and freedom at serious risk.

Bachelet said, the refugees in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar are the victims of human rights violations committed in the midst of the violence that erupted in August 2017 and are unwilling to return under current conditions.

She appealed to the Government of Bangladesh to ensure scrupulously that any repatriation takes place in line with international standards of voluntariness, safety and dignity, with full transparency, and only when the conditions are right.

Bachelet also called on the Government of Myanmar to show its seriousness in creating the conditions for return by addressing the root causes of the crisis in Rakhine state, in particular, the systematic discrimination against and persecution of Rohingyas.