Reza Mahmud, back from Ukhiya :
The children are most vulnerable in Rohingya refugee camps situated in Cox’s Bazar district.
According to the official sources, their number is about 1,50,000 and they are living with or without their parents.
“The NGOs working in the refugee camps are seriously worried about the future of the children,”
Harunur Rashid, Senior Officer of the international NGO ‘Save The Children’ told The New Nation.
The Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) is working in the region to help the Rohingya people survive.
One of the officials from the group said preferring anonymity, “Many of these children who have fled conflict and persecution and have arrived in Bangladesh seeking safety will die from malnutrition, sickness and disease.”
The official also said that several hundred Rohingya children arrived from Myanmar as orphan.
“Those children have no parents. Their mothers and fathers have been killed either by the Army or by the Buddhist extremist groups in Myanmar. We are seriously worried for such children as they have no parents to take care of them,” the official said.
“It is not only crisis for food, but of more open spaces to build make shift houses, fresh drinking water and adequate sewerage systems in Rohingya camps to save the children from diseases and malnutrition there,” Harunur Rashid said.
On the spot, this correspondent found that the Rohingya people were living in different temporary camps in seriously unhealthy conditions.
In Unchhiprang refugee camp under the Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar, more than one lakh Rohingya people have one tubewell, the only source of safe water to drink.
The people of the camp have been using water to drink and cooking with water from a nearby canal. Some of them are bringing water from a nearby hill fountain.
There was not any sanitary latrine in the camp. The people and the children living there are using open places beside there make shift houses as latrine.
The stink were spreading into the air from those open latrines.
The same conditions were found in Nayapara temporary camps in the same upazila and Kutupalong, Thaingkhali, Balukhali and other temporary camps in Ukhiya upazila.
Apart from this, the living condition in those camps are also unhealthy. Huge number of people are living in a tiny space in makeshift houses made with polythene sheets, ropes and bamboos.
The floor of most of those houses was muddy. Most of the Rohingya people are living laying plastic mats on the muddy floor.
As a result many of the children in those camps become infected by diarrhoea and fever.
The mothers have been found carrying there children to the nearby medical camps arranged by different NGO’s and hospitals.
“The rain caused severe crisis for the camp living people. The parents failed to save their children from the rain water in the camps caused huge number of children infected by diarrhoea, fever and flue,” said Altaf Hossain, the Coordinator of a charity medical camp in Unchhiprang refugee camp, organised by Barakah Medical Services.
The children are most vulnerable in Rohingya refugee camps situated in Cox’s Bazar district.
According to the official sources, their number is about 1,50,000 and they are living with or without their parents.
“The NGOs working in the refugee camps are seriously worried about the future of the children,”
Harunur Rashid, Senior Officer of the international NGO ‘Save The Children’ told The New Nation.
The Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) is working in the region to help the Rohingya people survive.
One of the officials from the group said preferring anonymity, “Many of these children who have fled conflict and persecution and have arrived in Bangladesh seeking safety will die from malnutrition, sickness and disease.”
The official also said that several hundred Rohingya children arrived from Myanmar as orphan.
“Those children have no parents. Their mothers and fathers have been killed either by the Army or by the Buddhist extremist groups in Myanmar. We are seriously worried for such children as they have no parents to take care of them,” the official said.
“It is not only crisis for food, but of more open spaces to build make shift houses, fresh drinking water and adequate sewerage systems in Rohingya camps to save the children from diseases and malnutrition there,” Harunur Rashid said.
On the spot, this correspondent found that the Rohingya people were living in different temporary camps in seriously unhealthy conditions.
In Unchhiprang refugee camp under the Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar, more than one lakh Rohingya people have one tubewell, the only source of safe water to drink.
The people of the camp have been using water to drink and cooking with water from a nearby canal. Some of them are bringing water from a nearby hill fountain.
There was not any sanitary latrine in the camp. The people and the children living there are using open places beside there make shift houses as latrine.
The stink were spreading into the air from those open latrines.
The same conditions were found in Nayapara temporary camps in the same upazila and Kutupalong, Thaingkhali, Balukhali and other temporary camps in Ukhiya upazila.
Apart from this, the living condition in those camps are also unhealthy. Huge number of people are living in a tiny space in makeshift houses made with polythene sheets, ropes and bamboos.
The floor of most of those houses was muddy. Most of the Rohingya people are living laying plastic mats on the muddy floor.
As a result many of the children in those camps become infected by diarrhoea and fever.
The mothers have been found carrying there children to the nearby medical camps arranged by different NGO’s and hospitals.
“The rain caused severe crisis for the camp living people. The parents failed to save their children from the rain water in the camps caused huge number of children infected by diarrhoea, fever and flue,” said Altaf Hossain, the Coordinator of a charity medical camp in Unchhiprang refugee camp, organised by Barakah Medical Services.
