Staff Reporter :
Moderate to heavy rain over the weekend has turned the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar into muddy ground where thousands of Rohingyas from Myanmar have taken shelter.
“If the Rohingya refugees can’t meet their basic needs, the suffering will get even worse and many more lives could be lost,” Mark Pierce, Bangladesh Country Director for ‘Save the Children said in a statement on Sunday.
Pierce said the humanitarian response needed to be rapidly scaled up. “That can only be done if the international community steps up funding,” he said.
Heavy rain over the weekend turned roads into mud, with countless Rohingya putting up shelters with bamboo and plastic sheets beside them, said Chris Lom, of the International Organisation of Migration (IOM).
“Clean water and sanitation can only be delivered in a structured environment,” said the IOM official.
Lom said: “Rohingya refugees are living in these muddy, awful conditions in these refugee camps. They could die due to a lack of food, shelter and available drinking water as huge numbers of them fleeing violence in Myanmar.”
“I’m particularly worried that the demand for food, shelter, water and basic hygiene support is not being met due to the sheer number of people in need. If families can’t meet their basic needs, the suffering will get even worse and lives could be lost,” Mark Pierce said.
Rohingya people, including families, children and the elderly, are spending night outdoors with no shelter from the rain conditions.
Thy have been exposed to conditions that pose a threat to their health as assistance fails to meet minimum standards.
Meanwhile, Met office on Sunday forecast that further heavy to very heavy rainfall due to active monsoon during next 12 hours at places over Dhaka, Khulna, Barisal and Chittagong divisions.
As it has been raining since Saturday night the situation in refugee camps under Ukiah and Teknaf upazilas of Cox’s Bazar district has deteriorated, a local told journalists on Sunday. And if the rain continues, situation will take a serious turn.
Nearly 410,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim minority fled from western Rakhine state to Bangladesh to escape a military offensive that the United Nations has branded a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.
Of them, 229,000 Rohingyas are living in new makeshift settlements at Ukhia and Kutupalong in Cox’s Bazar, while 159,000 moved into the makeshift camps set up by the Rohingyas prior to the influx that began on August 25.
The prices of essentials, household items, rent, public transportation fares and labour in Teknaf and Ukiah upazilas have increased due to arrival of Rohingyas.
There is no sign that violence has stopped in Myanmar, with smoke, apparently from burning villages, seen as recently as Friday, meaning more refugees are likely to cross.
Cox’s Bazar Sadar Hospital opened up a separate ward and surgery unit for the new arrivals as high number of injured with gunshot and diarrhea patients got admitted there.
Border Guard Bangladesh, local residents and camp committees in the pre-existing makeshift settlements are continuing to direct new arrivals to the new spontaneous settlements.
Significant numbers of new arrivals observed along the roadsides at Kutupalong and thousands of new arrivals are reportedly taking shelter in the Teknaf urban area.
Due to the absence of proper structures, many people slept under the open sky amid rain.
Mohammad Aminul Huq, a local person living adjacent to Kutupalong camp, said conditions are dire. “Most of Rohingyas are in the open air.”
Unless adequate protections are urgently put in place, it is apprehended that thousands of pregnant women, young children, and elderly people will be exposed to extremely harsh conditions this late monsoon with potentially life-threatening implications.
Bangladesh border guards said on Sunday the flow of refugees leaving Myanmar had eased off over the past day, apparently because bad weather had discouraged people from taking to boats to reach Bangladesh.
Human Rights Watch said satellite imagery showed 62 Rohingya villages had been torched since the violence erupted.
Myanmar says more than 430 people have been killed, most of them insurgents, and about 30,000 non-Muslim villagers displaced.
