Staff Reporter :
The humanitarian situation in southern parts of Bangladesh sheltering hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees continues to deteriorate, making the crisis one of the fastest growing refugee crises of recent years, according to the United Nations.
“The crisis is creating enormous humanitarian needs in an area of Bangladesh already affected by earlier refugee influxes, recent floods and not equipped to cope with large numbers of new arrivals,” Andrej Mahecic, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told journalists at a media briefing in Geneva on Saturday.
There are Rohingyas everywhere in different areas, including two refugee camps Kutupalong under Teknaf and Nayapara under Ukiah upazilas of Cox’s Bazar district as well as Bandarban district, in every alleyway, houses that three weeks ago were home to ten people are now hosting 20 or 30.
The flow is not stopping. Refugees continue to arrive daily outside of the two established camps, which are already substantially overflowing, and many people have received little meaningful help to date.
An estimated 400,000 Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar, have fled since the latest bout of violence erupted in northern Rakhine state on August 25.
Arriving by foot and boat, they are in urgent need of shelter, food and medical care, and are stretching Bangladesh’s ability to cope.
Tired, destitute, hungry, and frequently sick, they have poured by the thousands into the camp and its surroundings.
“A visit to the area this week by a UNHCR team, led by Assistant High Commissioner for Operations George Okoth-Obbo, found people suffering real hardship and some of the most difficult conditions seen in any current refugee situation,” Andrej Mahecic said.
The UN agency has been responding to the situation and assisting those coming but its in-country stocks have been exhausted, UNHCR spokesperson said, adding that deliveries of more aid – flown in earlier this week – are currently underway.
According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), there are at least 240,000 children among the refugees, including about 36,000, who are less than a year old.
There were also 52,000 pregnant and lactating women.
“Conditions are ripe for the spread of diseases,” Marixie Mercado, a UNICEF spokesperson highlighted at the briefing, noting that refuges have little protection from the elements and lack drinking water.
“There are nowhere near enough latrines, and extreme mosquito activity has been forecast for the coming days. It is important to note that even before the crisis, half of the children in Rakhine state had suffered from chronic malnutrition, meaning they were vulnerable to disease,” she said.
To help cope with this situation, the World Health Organization (WHO) is stepping up its efforts, and on Saturday launched a polio and measles vaccination campaign to cover 150,000 newly arrived children aged 6 months to 15 years old, said Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesperson for the UN agency.
“In the coming days, we will also distribute emergency medical kits to cover 100,000 people, 2 million water purification tablets and cholera kits for 20,000 people,” he added, noting that the UN health agency is also supporting the Bangladesh government in providing medical teams to new spontaneous settlements.
The World Food Programme (WFP), the UN’s emergency food assistance agency, has also upped its response, delivering high-energy food bars, and together with partners, hot food and rice for cooking to tens of thousands of refugees.
Mahecic also noted that Bangladeshi communities have shown “remarkable generosity,” welcoming refugees into their homes and sharing resources with them.
However, as the number of new arrivals continues, UN agencies are in urgent need of additional funds to provide protection and life-saving assistance.
Among them, UNHCR has appealed for an initial amount of $30 million for its emergency response in the country until the end of year.
Similarly, UNICEF made an initial appeal for $7.3 million over three months, including almost $3 million for water and sanitation alone, but that amount was calculated on the basis of 200,000 people and that number had now doubled.
Her village in flames and family scattered, 30-year-old Juleka trekked for nine days with her six-year-old daughter Janathana before finally reaching safety at this refugee camp in Bangladesh.
“Only Allah knows what I’ll do next,” says Juleka, clutching a bag, the only item she salvaged from their home.
“I have some close relatives in the camp, but I don’t know where. I will try and find them, after organizing some shelter,” she continued.
Kutupalong is the destination for many of the men, women and children running for their lives from Myanmar.
Kutupalong is one of two government-run refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar area of southern Bangladesh, the other being the Nayapara Refugee Camp. The two camps have a combined population of around 77,000 refugees, although that is growing by the day.
Hosna Ara Begum, 30, a UNHCR staff member talks with newly arrived Rohingya refugees as they shelter in a College Hill Primary School in the Kutupalong Refugee Camp.
“When you witness the situation first hand, through your own eyes and not through the media or on television, it is only then that you realise what the situation is really like here,” says Hosna.
“They come and seek support from us … They are all vulnerable, but at this moment, we are not able to help everyone,” she says, noting that normal camp activities such as education have been temporarily suspended as the new arrivals are sleeping in schools and other communal buildings.
In the muddy alleyways of houses built during the 1990s, a pregnant woman approaches her to ask for help.Privately, many aid workers worry about the pressure that the huge influx since August is putting on family life.
Some say that they have seen an increase in domestic abuse, while in the UNHCR Primary Medical Centre, the stress on limited resources is visible.
Hubaib, 12, from Maungdaw in Myanmar, sits swinging his legs on one of the beds. “He was shot in the back,” explains his mother, “his father was shot and killed.”
When he first arrived at Kutupalong, he was referred to the government hospital at Cox’s Bazar.
