Myanmar police arrest nearly 100 trafficked Rohingya in raid

Almost 100 Rohingya Muslims smuggled from Myanmar's conflict-scarred Rakhine state have been arrested in a raid in Yangon.

Members of the stateless minority group have long faced discrimination in Myanmar, where they are denied freedom of movement and citizenship, and lack access to work, healthcare and schools. The plight of the Rohingya captured international headlines in 2017 after a military crackdown in western Rakhine state sent almost 750,000 fleeing across the border to Bangladesh.

With the remaining languishing in camps that rights groups have described as "apartheid-like", many choose to embark on treacherous routes with human smugglers to reach Malaysia and Indonesia.

The latest smuggling operation was uncovered by Yangon police Wednesday, who raided two houses in Shwepyitha township and discovered 99 Rohingya.

Images published by local media showed the Rohingya huddled barefoot and wearing face masks, in front of a leafy multi-story house where they had reportedly been hiding for months.

Seventy-three of the group were women,and they were accompanied by a number of children between the ages of five and 10.

They are currently quarantined in a local university.

Police said authorities were first alerted to a "suspicious man" who wasn't able to speak Burmese fluently.

They followed him to a house where they discovered the others. No smugglers were reportedly arrested.

Myanmar -- which has long maintained the 2017 crackdown was necessary to root out Rohingya militants -- now faces charges of genocide at the UN's top court.

(with inputs from AFP)