Darusman urged Rohingya Muslims not to return without adequate guarantees for human rights protection.

"People continue to flee. The number of new arrivals in camps in Bangladesh is continuing at a pace of up to 1,000 persons per week," Darusman told the UN human rights council in Geneva on Monday after conducting over 600 in-depth interviews with victims and witnesses of alleged human rights violations and abuses.

"Myanmar authorities have announced willingness to receive refugees back. While professing this, they are bulldozing land such that the delineation of the boundaries of the homes and lands of those who fled are becoming untraceable. It is difficult to see how those who returned can rebuild their past lives," Darusman said.

Both the Myanmar military and civilian authorities have effectively labeled the whole Rohingya population as Bengali "illegal immigrants" and "extremist terrorists", he said.

"It is critically important for the displaced people not to be returned without adequate guarantees for human rights protection in place. Otherwise, we could be laying the groundwork, not for solutions, but for another repeat experience," he said.

Satellite imagery shows that at least 319 villages were partially or totally destroyed by fire after the “clearance operations” began in August 2017. 

He also called on Myanmar to stop dismissing reports that serious human rights violations have been committed in the Kachin, Shan and Rakhine states.

"The events we are examining in detail in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states are products of a longstanding, systemic pattern of human rights violations and abuses in Myanmar."