(March 15, 2025)—On March 15, 2025, just days after Fortify Rights published a news release advocating for establishing a humanitarian corridor, the U.N. Secretary General also called for a corridor between Bangladesh and Rakhine State, Myanmar. In making the recommendation, the Secretary-General said:
We need to intensify the humanitarian aid inside Myanmar to create the conditions for that return to be successful. And that is the reason why one of the discussions we had was about the possibility, if the circumstances allow, to have also humanitarian aid channeled from Bangladesh.
Fortify Rights published a news release in English and Burmese languages on March 12, 2025 advocating for the Government of Bangladesh and the Arakan Army—a Myanmar-based ethnic armed group engaged in conflict with the Myanmar junta—to immediately facilitate humanitarian aid and cross-border trade to support war-affected civilians in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. The publication is based on evidence collected over a three-month period, including 15 interviews with residents of Myanmar’s Rakhine State, newly arrived refugees in Bangladesh, and U.N. officials and aid workers. Documents obtained and reviewed by Fortify Rights also confirmed junta-imposed travel authorization bans on humanitarian workers delivering aid in Rakhine State.