U.N. starts registering Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

FILE PHOTO: Rohingya refugees play football at Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh, March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo

NAYAPARA REFUGEE CAMP, Bangladesh (Reuters) - The United Nations and the Bangladesh government have started formally registering hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who have fled a military crackdown in Myanmar, a move that officials say would help their eventual return.

More than 700,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya have escaped Buddhist-majority Myanmar since last August, when attacks by Muslim insurgents triggered a military offensive that the United Nations has likened to ethnic cleansing. Myanmar denies the accusations and has said it waged a legitimate counter-insurgency operation.