IMPASSIONED speeches about the plight of the persecuted Rohingya people in Myanmar drew applause at tonight’s Full Council meeting.

Bradford has the UK’s biggest Rohingya community and yesterday, Councillor Hassan Khan (Lab, Bowling and Barkerend) described the situation in Myanmar as genocide and “something out of the horror movies”.

Cllr Khan put forward a motion, which was passed unanimously, offering support to Rohingya Bradfordians. The authority pledged to ensure they have access to English classes, help their Bradford association to establish itself as a charity and support them to manage their charity relief effort to support the plight of others in their homeland.

Parliament also held a debate on the issue last night, with Bradford’s three MPs, Naz Shah, Judith Cummins and Imran Hussain, all highlighting the fact that the UN had called the situation “a textbook case of ethnic cleansing”. Mr Hussain said: “Rohingya men, women and children are being murdered.”