Massive fire in Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee camps leaves 45,000 people displaced

OXFAM

By Oxfam

April 6, 2021

Oxfam Senior Public Health Promotion Associate Arif Hossen helps refugees collect drinking water in the aftermath of a devastating fire in Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee camps on March 22. The blaze spread rapidly for several hours in the densely populated camps, destroying homes and critical water and sanitation infrastructure. Oxfam emergency response teams are on the ground providing safe drinking water, hygiene kits, and emergency latrines. Mutasim Billah / Oxfam

Oxfam assisting survivors with clean water, soap, emergency latrines

A massive fire that swept through the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on March 22 has left 10,000 families—roughly 45,000 people—displaced and in urgent need of food, water, and sanitation services. The fire was yet another devastating blow to the Rohingya people who fled shocking violence and persecution in Myanmar.

‘We have nothing’: Refugee camp fire devastates Rohingya, again

Aljazeera
Faisal Mahmud
27 Mar 2021

Refugees recount ordeal after deadly blaze leaves tens of thousands without a shelter, reawakens trauma of Myanmar army’s 2017 crackdown.

At least 15 people were killed in Monday's fire and hundreds injured [Faisal Mahmud/Al Jazeera]

Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – The last time Farida Begum saw her home turned into a smouldering ruin was some three and a half years ago.

On that night, soldiers had arrived in the swampy Maungdaw district of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, killed her husband and torched their house.

Shelters being built in Bangladesh Rohingya camp after fire

AP

March 24, 2021

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AP) — Authorities and volunteers from aid agencies in southern Bangladesh were rebuilding shelters on Wednesday for thousands of Rohingya refugees who lost their dwellings to a devastating fire that killed at least 15 people, including children, officials said

Thousands of refugees became homeless in Monday’s fire that raced through Balukhali camp at Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar district, home to more than 1 million Rohingya refugees from neighboring Myanmar.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said more than 10,000 families lost their homes. The fire also destroyed dozens of learning centers for children, clinics, markets and aid distribution centers.

Rohingya leaders: Army coup will adversely impact repatriation bid

Dhaka Tribune  

Abdul Aziz, Cox's Bazar
February 1st, 2021

 

Ships of Bangladesh Navy carry Rohingya people to Bhashan Char in Noakhali on Tuesday, December 29, 2020 Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

‘Whenever there is any development regarding our repatriation process, the Myanmar authorities create a problem’

As tensions grew in Myanmar after the country’s military staged a coup d’etat in the early hours of Monday, Rohingyas living in the refugee camps of Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh feared they might not be repatriated to their country.

Though the situation along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border has been normal despite the military takeover in the neighbouring country, Rohingya leaders in the refugee camps said the military takeover would badly affect the repatriation process.

UN Steps Up Support For Thousands Left Homeless After Fire At Rohingya Refugee Camp

SCOOPworld

Sunday, 17 January 2021,
Press Release: UN News

 

UN agencies have stepped up efforts to help thousands of Rohingya refugees left without shelter after a devastating fire tore through a crowded refugee camp in south-eastern Bangladesh on Thursday. 

WFP Bangladesh A devastating fire broke out on 14 January in Nayapara refugee camp, southern Bangladesh, destroying over 500 shelters.

 

The fire erupted shortly after midnight on Thursday (local time) in the Nayapara refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, gutting about 550 shelters and 150 shops. A community centre is also said to have been destroyed.

About 3,500 Rohingya refugees, including children, lost their homes and belongings in the blaze, in the middle of winter and the coronavirus pandemic, UN agencies said.

No lives were lost, and the fire was brought under control in a few hours by firefighters, volunteers and refugees.

Gunfight kills one person, injures 10 in Bangladesh in Rohingya refugee

MENAFN 

Date 1/10/2021 

(MENAFN)According to an official and sources, on Sunday, at least one Rohingya refugee was killed and 10 others wounded in a gunfight amid two rival factions in Cox's Bazar, a sprawling refugee camp in Bangladesh.

According to Anadolu Agency, Mahbub Alam Talukder, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner stated that, "Some rival groups among Rohingya refugees are involved in a power struggle."

It further declared that dead has been identified as 30-year-old Nur Hakim, and his body has been sent for autopsy.

They also stated, the wounded have been shifted to a camp-based medical facility run by Save the Children. 

 Link : Here

Three years on, Rohingya trapped in camps as they await justice

Aljazeera
25 Aug 2020

About a million refugees live in Bangladesh refugee camps since they fled Myanmar military operation on August 25, 2017.

Some one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are marking three years since escaping from Myanmar with a day-long "silent protest" protest, which the coronavirus pandemic is forcing them to hold inside their flimsy bamboo shacks.

We, the Rohingya, can’t wait for justice from faraway courts

Frontier
MYANMAR

ZAHIDULLAH, SHOHID & ABDULLAH ZUBAIR
Thursday, May 28, 2020

A Rohingya refugee in a camp in southern Bangladesh watches on a mobile phone a live feed of State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi speaking at the International Court of Justice in The Hague on December 11, 2019. (AFP) 

 

Expectations about international justice are unrealistically high among Rohingya in the camps in Bangladesh, and the case before the ICJ is likely to end in disappointment.
On May 23, Myanmar had to submit its first report to the International Court of Justice in The Hague about the measures it has taken to prevent the genocide of the Rohingya people. The report was not made public so we can only guess what Myanmar is telling the court about the situation in Rakhine State.

15,000 Rohingya under quarantine as coronavirus cases rise

Aljazeera
2May 2020


Three sections of camps in Bangladesh blocked off by authorities after confirmed infections among refugees hit

At least 15,000 Rohingya refugees are under quarantine in Bangladesh's vast camps, as the number of confirmed coronavirus infections there rose to 29.

Health experts have long warned that the virus could race through the cramped settlements, housing almost a million Rohingya who fled violence in Myanmar, and officials had restricted movement in the area in April.

In a Bangladesh refugee camp, I'm worried about what lockdown means for the safety of Rohingya women

INDEPENDENT

Sharmin Akter
May 26' 2020

A young woman that I helped recently needed nine stitches after her neighbour’s husband slashed the soles of her feet with a knife – during an argument over hygiene conditions

Now that Covid-19 has reached the Rohingya refugee camps, there is a very real risk that the virus could spread like wildfire. More than 800,000 people are living here in homes that are small, close together and overcrowded. Typically, there are five to seven people living in one 10 x 15 foot shelter made out of bamboo and tarpaulin, and this makes social distancing incredibly difficult.

First coronavirus case confirmed in Cox's Bazar, near world's largest refugee camp

CNN

March 25, 2020

Rebecca Wright and journalist Salman Saeed 

People cross a stream in a Rohingya refugee camp on January 23 in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Allison Joyce/Getty Images

The first case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

According to the United Nations refugee agency, a local Bangladeshi woman was confirmed to be positive on Tuesday afternoon local time.

The hospital in the town of Cox’s Bazar is around one hour’s drive from sprawling camps which are home to nearly one million Rohingya refugees.

German minister set to arrive Tuesday, visit Rohingya camps Wednesday

Dhaka Tribune
Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan
February 24th, 2020

Dr Gerd Müller AFP

On Tuesday, he would be visiting some RMG factories in Gazipur and meet with government representatives and labour unions

A delegation, led by the German Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development Dr Gerd Müller, is set to arrive in Dhaka on Tuesday on a two-day visit that would focus on the Rohingya crisis and the readymade garment (RMG) sector of the country, according to the Embassy of Germany in Dhaka.

Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) KAP Survey Round 2 (November 2019), UNHCR Managed All Camps - UNHCR Managed Camps, Rohingya Refugee Response - Bangladesh

Bangladesh building barbed-wire fences around Rohingya

AA
Najmus Sakib
DHAKA, Bangladesh
16.02.2020
Rights groups say move denies refugee rights, will turn area into concentration camps 

Bangladesh started erecting barbed-wire fences around Rohingya refugee camps to rein in illegal trafficking of the vulnerable refugees, the government said Saturday.

Other measures, including “installation of watchtower and CCTV cameras have also been started to this effect to strengthen the surveillance on the Rohingya people and the refugee camps,” according to Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.

Army tasked with fencing Rohingya camps

NEWAGE

Muktadir Rashid
Jan 11,2020


The disaster management and relief ministry has given the Bangladesh Army the responsibility to install barbed-wire fences around the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar where over a million displaced Myanmar nationals have been living for over two years.

State minister for the ministry Md Enamur Rahman said on Friday that they formally asked the army last week to fence the camps in order to separate the host population and the displaced community.

Bangladeshi Army Installs Barbwire Fence Along Rohingya Camps

The Irrawaddy
By Muktadir Rashid
10 January 2020

Bangladeshi soldiers oversee the installation of pillars for a barbwire fence near a Rohingya refugee camp in Ukhia, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh in December 2019. / Helal Uddin

 

DHAKA—The Bangladeshi army has started installing a barbwire fence along the edge of Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar district where 1.1 million refugees are currently living.

A highly placed source in Bangladesh told The Irrawaddy that a 2.09 billion-taka budget (US$24.6 million) was approved for the installation of a fence along the camps in Ukhia and Teknaf subdistricts in Cox’s Bazar following instructions from the prime minister’s office, in order to protect the refugees from crimes.

‘Discuss the root causes’

The Daily Star
December 21, 2019
Diplomatic Correspondent

Rohingyas asked Myanmar, Asean delegation at refugee camp

The joint delegation of Myanmar and Asean that recently visited the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar to persuade them to return to Myanmar allegedly faced a volley of questions from the refugees as to why Myanmar authorities were not discussing the root causes of the problem.

During the two-day visit, Rohingya representatives upheld their basic demands that include recognition of the Rohingya identity, granting of their citizenship, and assurance of their safety and security in Rakhine in presence of the international community.

Vulnerabilities in the Rohingya refugee camps ( ANALYSIS HUB )

Bangladesh orders closure of Rohingya advocacy office

Press TV
Friday, 06 December 2019

A Rohingya refugee man (foreground) works at the Kutupalong refugee camp, in Ukhia, Bangladesh, on September 13, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

Bangladesh has ordered the closure of the headquarters of a leading Rohingya advocacy group, which has become a key voice for the Muslim minority stuck in squalid camps, amid a clampdown by the country's authorities on the refugees.

A spokesman for the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH) said officials had told community leaders in the camps in southeast Bangladesh to keep the office of the ARSPH at Kutupalong — the world’s largest refugee settlement — padlocked until further notice.

The refugee camp in Bangladesh – two years after displacement

reliefweb

Myanmar – Diverse or Divided?

Private: November 2019

 In the camps in Cox's Bazar district. Photo: SRK, Remo Nägeli

A large number of displaced persons sought refuge in Bangladesh in 2017 from the violence in Myanmar. The Swiss Red Cross (SRC) has been active in Bangladesh for almost 50 years and has also been in Cox’s Bazar since 2017. In this interview, Benedikt Kaelin, Program Officer for Bangladesh at the SRC, talks about the lives of people in the camps and assesses how they can move forward.