Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have received legal advice from the Attorney General on whether the violence in Rakhine State constitutes ethnic cleansing; and if so, what assessment they have made of that advice.

We have not sought or received advice from the Attorney General on whether the violence in Rakhine State constitutes ethnic cleansing.

More than 608,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh as a result of Burmese military and militia violence since 25 August. This increasingly seems to be a case of ethnic cleansing. As a consequence the international community needs to see these people able to return to their homes in Burma safely.