Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh made emotional pleas to the UN Security Council delegation for help to return safely to their homes in neighbouring Myanmar.
They also sought help to get justice over the reason they fled - accusations of killings, rapes and arson.
Several tearful Rohingya women and girls made the appeal to the UNSC envoys on Sunday, reports Reuters.
The Security Council envoys visited makeshift Rohingya camps at no-man’s land on the border of Bangladesh and Myanmar near Bandarban’s Naikkhyanchharhi.
The UNSC envoys will travel to Myanmar on Monday and meet with its de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The 15-member delegation also visited a dry and dusty Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar district.
The camp housed many of the nearly 700,000 Rohingya who fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
They are living in temporary shelters made of bamboo and tarpaulins at Kutupalong, many on steep hills and in low-lying areas likely to be flooded.
During the visit of UNSC delegation, a lot of Rohingyas were seen in displaying signs that read “we demand justice” and “protected return to protected homeland.”
“We are standing here to demand justice as they (Myanmar military) have killed our men and tortured our women so much, so we are compelled to seek justice for those abuses,” Rohingya woman Sajida Begum said.
Several female refugees who met with council envoys accused Myanmar troops of gang-raping them, attacking their young children and killing their husbands.
British Ambassador to UN Karen Pierce, a member of the delegation, shared her experiences while talking to the journalists after witnessing the plight of the Rohingyas.
“It shows the scale of the challenge as we try as a Security Council to find some way through that enables these poor people to go home,” Pierce said.
“The sad thing is there’s nothing we can do right today that will make their distress any less,” the UK envoy said.
“It’s quite overwhelming. Obviously the scale of this camp is unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” said deputy US Ambassador to the United Nations Kelley Currie. “It is going to be a disaster when the rains come.”
However, while the Security Council is united on travelling to the region, diplomats said they expect Myanmar ally China and Russia - both veto-wielding powers on the council - to resist any push for stronger council action, such as sanctions or a referral of the situation to the International Criminal Court.
“This is very complicated issue, and it’s related with history, with ethnicity, with religions,” Chinese deputy UN Ambassador Wu Haitao told reporters, in response to a question about whether China and Russia were preventing the council from considering a resolution on Myanmar.
“There is no easy answer but if we all work together I think we can find a way,” he said.
“We don’t have any magic solution in the Security Council,” deputy Russian UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told reporters in response to a question about whether the council would consider itself responsible for failing to address the crisis.
“The issue is still for us to promote bilateral ways to resolve this issue. We will try to convince both governments ... to engage in constructive negotiations, discussion,” he said.
The refugee crisis exploded about eight months ago when the Myanmar military launched a crackdown over Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts.
The United States, Britain, United Nations and others described the operation as ethnic cleansing of the minority mainly Muslim Rohingya, a charge Myanmar denies.
The council adopted a formal statement in November - a move that requires consensus by the 15-member body - that asked Myanmar to ensure no “further excessive use of military force” and to allow “freedom of movement, equal access to basic services, and equal access to full citizenship for all.”
However, Myanmar has said that its operations in Rakhine were a legitimate response to attacks on security forces by Rohingya insurgents.
Buddhist-majority Myanmar has for years denied Rohingya citizenship, freedom of movement and access to many basic services such as healthcare and education.