In a little more than a month, more than half a million Rohingya have fled Myanmar’s western Rakhine State to travel by land and boat to neighboring Bangladesh.

The mass exodus occurred after militants attacked police outposts on Aug. 25, which led to a massive military crackdown on the population, and the United Nations has called the country’s military response “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” But, persecution of the Rohingya minority has forced many to flee the country long before the latest attacks in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Worldview talks to Nasir Zakaria, president of the Rohingya Cultural Center in Chicago, and Abdul Jabbar Amanullah, who works directly with Rohingya refugees as an interpreter for RCC and Heartland Alliance, about the latest out of Myanmar, and what the RCC is doing to help resettle refugees in Chicago.