Freeland says Canada working to play a leadership role in Rohingya crisis

Canada's top diplomat says her trip to Bangladesh shows that Canada is establishing a leadership role in the region and making an effort to hear what Rohingya refugees have to say.

Global Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says those are two of the recommendations laid out in a report on the ongoing Rohingya crisis by Bob Rae, Canada's special envoy to Myanmar.

Rae's report outlines 17 recommendations, including accepting Rohingya asylum-seekers and spending $150 million a year on humanitarian efforts.

Freeland says the federal government has already taken steps towards some of those recommendations, and her presence in Bangladesh shows Canada's commitment to becoming a world leader in the crisis.

Roughly 700,000 ethnic Rohingya — a Muslim people inhabiting western Myanmar — have fled to Bangladesh since last year to escape what the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing.

Freeland adds that the Rohingya community in Canada has said they want to be reunited with their families who are in refugee camps — but taking in refugees is something the government has to look in to.