Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
Several hundred private aide groups, companies and personalities are allegedly facing barrier to distribute relief in Rohingya camps and adjacent areas due to extra check points and surveillance of the law enforcing agencies, witnesses said.
The donors are refused entry into Rohingya camps and the adjacent areas of the refugee shelters to distribute food, clothes and medicines as the law enforcing agencies and local administration do not give the permission in this regard, they alleged.
The private donors demanded that the government should allow them easily to reach the areas to distribute relief to ease crisis of the Rohingya refugees.
The law enforcers established huge check points to control the law and order situation while the plain-clothes men are performing their duties as per the instruction from the high ups of the government in Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHI) areas, they said.
In Kutupalong camp area, the district administration has opened a centre beside Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf road for individual relief donors to provide their names and the quantity of the goods they want to donate, said our local correspondent.
The individuals are then asked to go to designated places and distribute the relief, he said.
Anwar Hossain, social activist from Jaldhaka upazila of Nilphamari district, told The New Nation on Monday, “Woman, children and elderly people stood beside roads and rushed towards any vehicle stopping near the shelters. Rohingyas in makeshift camps away from the main road said they received relief, but it was inadequate.”
“The cops allowed me after showing a letter from Jaldhaka Upazila Nirbahi Officer. They did not allow me to enter camp to distribute relief before submitting the letter,” he said.
Gura Mia, a Rohingya, said, “His young daughter died four days after arriving in Bangladesh as he could not find anything to feed her. It happened because no relief was reaching Tajnimaar Khola makeshift camp where he had taken refuge.”
Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, Executive Director of Coast Trust, told the media, in some areas people are getting more relief while in other areas they are not getting what they need following barrier of the law enforcers.
An international aid worker, requesting anonymity, said, “Nobody predicted the arrival to such a huge number of people within such a short period of time. And people are still coming every day. I think this chaotic situation will prevail for a month.”
“We have selected seven relief distribution points in Ukhiya and five in Teknaf. We are asking people to distribute certain goods at definite spots. But the situation is not in order yet as our logistic support and manpower is not enough to deal with so many refugees,” said Mahidur Rahman, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Cox’s Bazar.
The government is distributing relief materials received from India, Indonesia, Iran, Turkey and Morocco. Many NGOs have chipped in as well, he claimed.
Raihanul Islam Mia, Ukhiya Upazila Secondary Education Officer who was on duty at the relief registration point, said, “We were supposed to send a government representative with the donors, but we could not do that due to manpower shortage. As a result, many private donors went to the camps for distributing relief materials among the refugees on their own depriving the elderly and children.”
