KEIGHLEY councillor Abid Hussain is on a second mercy mission to help Burmese refugees in Bangladesh.

He is being accompanied on his visit to camps near the Burmese border by fellow politicians from Keighley and Bradford.

Cllr Hussain flew to Bangladesh last year while Lord Mayor of Bradford, to help the Rohingya, a Muslim people who have fled into Bangladesh to escape atrocities and ethnic cleansing in neighbouring Burma.

At least 800,000 Rohingya are living in overcrowded camps in south east Bangladesh with no immediate prospect of being able to return home safely.

On his latest trip, which set off on Friday, February 22, his party includes by Keighley-based councillors Cath Bacon, Zafar Ali, Fulzar Ahmed and Kaneez Akhtar.

Cllr Hussain said the focus of his own trip would be the refugee camps, although there were also other objectives for the nine-day visit including delivering educational projects.

He said: “I’m hoping we can meet the High Commissioner of Britain while we are in Bangladesh, and we will also visit schools and universities.

“But the main issue is visiting the border. We can feed the community, and we can come back to England knowing how we can help further.

“The first time I went out we took some money to give people in the camps. I’m going back to see if there’s been any difference and if needs are being met.

“The United Nations say people should go back to their own country but there’s no guarantee of safety.”

In January this year the politicians teamed up with the Bradford-based Eden Project to raise money for the Burmese refugees.

In a tweet about her upcoming trip, Cllr Bacon mentioned Bangladeshi garment workers who have been clashing with police over poor pay.

She wrote: “I will hopefully be meeting with some of the women involved in standing up for workers’ rights, terms and conditions and I’ll be hearing their stories about their fight for fair pay.

When Cllr Hussain spent five days with the refugees last year, he heard harrowing stories of mass murder and other atrocities.

Afterwards he said: “It was very upsetting to see the conditions these people are having to deal with.”