Rohingya Muslim refugees recounted terrifying stories to MPs Ryan Callus and Alex Muscat, who last week returned from a visit Bangladesh where the exiled ethnic group have found refuge from persecution in Myanmar.

Refugees at the coastal city of Cox’s Bazar described seeing members of Myanmar’s army throw babies into a fire pit as the country pursues what the UN has described as a “genocide”.

Mr Callus and Mr Muscat visited Cox’s Bazar at the end of the 63rd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, where the MPs joined the British delegation on their visit to the refugees. “Honestly, I was not fully conscious of their situation from the other side of the world,” Mr Callus told the Sunday Times of Malta, saying he had been shaken by the concerted effort of Myanmar’s government to render families stateless.

Myanmar’s military have persecuted the Rohingya since independence over 70 years ago. However, after a deadly attack on an army post, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have now been forced to flee. International media estimates that around one million Rohingya lived in Myanmar before the crisis. But over 600,000 refugees have left the Rakhine state for Bangladesh up the coast, the UN reports.

Mr Callus described scenes of children with bullet wounds in their faces lining up with some 200 people to get lunch from tents run by the UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency.

“Football was the only thing that could make them smile and the only way we could connect given the language barrier.”

Mr Muscat said: “Children playing games in the streets provided the only semblance of normal life in the village. They were the only beacon of hope in an otherwise desperate situation.”

MP Ryan Callus kicking a ball with young refugees: “Football was the only thing that could make them smile.”

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left borders open for the Rohingya, and Cox’s Bazar had an influx of 300,000 refu-gees. Posters of Ms Hasina bearing the caption “the mother of humanity” line walls on the way to the city.

Here was a politician who exemplified the generosity EU Member States too often only “pay lip service” to, Mr Callus continued. But the Maltese delegation was also struck by the ways in which refugees have settled in.

Educators made schools out of makeshift tents to continue teaching children voluntarily.

“Some of them have been living there for 25 years,” Mr Muscat said. “They know no other reality than that camp. It is an experience that touches you for life.”

He added he was shocked to witness a population bigger than the size of Malta’s living without access to electricity or water.

The MPs now want to raise awareness about the “ethnic cleansing” going on in Myanmar, admitting, however, that they felt “helpless” in the face of the crisis.

Suu Kyi under fire

Many have called for Myanmar’s President Aung San Suu Kyi to have her Nobel Peace prize withdrawn after she repeatedly failed to address the Rohingya crisis.

She was originally awarded the prize after enduring a total of 15 house arrests and leading a successful campaign for democracy in Myanmar.

But the once-celebrated Ms Suu Kyi has kept silent on the matter of the Rohingya.