Rohingya refugees streaming daily across the border into Bangladesh will finally find a temporary shelter in Bangladesh on humatarian grounds. They will be kept at a separate place secured by barbed wire fencing in Balukhali area under Ukhiya upazila of Cox’s Bazar district.

These refugees will be provided with necessary food, medical care and other logistical support for survival. Thousands of Rohingyas have already entered Bangladesh, fleeing violence in the Rakhine state of Myanmar, starting from August 25. They will be given bio-metric identity cards as a security measure so that they cannot go anywhere from their respective camps.

To provide food and other logistical support to these Rohingyas, the authorities concerned, including the home, finance affairs, disaster management and food ministries, have allocated funds and other materials after getting instructions from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in this regard yesterday.

On Monday, the Premier held a meeting with the authorities concerned, including the secretaries of some ministries and divisions, BGB, law enforcement agencies and the Cox’s Bazar district administration, at Ganabhaban about facing the ongoing Rohingya crisis.

A senior official of the Cox’s Bazar district administration, on the condition of anonymity, said Rohingyas have started to pour into Bangladesh in waves. “Over one lakh Rohingyas have crossed Bangladesh to flee the violence in Myanmar that killed hundreds of Rohingyas and injured many,” he added.

“We'll keep the Rohingyas in Balukhali area under Ukhiya upazila in Cox’s Bazar district on a temporary basis and give them logistic support for survival,” he added.

The official also said that they will start the process of giving biometric identity cards to those who have recently  registered into local camps. “We're seeking support for these refugees from aid agencies,” he added.

He said that at least eight non-government organisations are working in Cox’s Bazar to look after the Rohingyas who have taken shelter in Bangladesh.

When contacted, a senior official of the Public Security Division under the home ministry told The Independent that the Rohingyas would be sent back home after the situation gets normal in Myanmar. “We can't keep them for a long time as we're a resource-limited densely populated country,” he said.

“We'll soon hold a meeting to find out our next course of action,” he added. The official said about five lakh Rogingyas are now staying in different areas, especially in Cox’s Bazar and its adjacent areas, in the country.

Currently, 35,329 Rohingyas are living in registered Rohingya camps in Bangladesh—at Nayapara in Teknaf, Kutupalong in Ukhiya and Leda in Teknaf—and they are not willing to go back, according to sources in the relief and the disaster management ministry.  

Meanwhile, the Indonesian foreign minister, Retno L.P. Marsudi, yesterday held a meeting on the Rohingya issue with foreign minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali at the state guest

house. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged world leaders to create pressure on the Myanmar government to take back their citizens who have tresspassed into Bangladeshi territory. She iterated this during a call with Rina Prihtyasmiarsi Soemarno, the Indonesian ambassador to Dhaka, at the Prime Minister’s Office yesterday.

The UNHCR also estimated that 123,000 refugees have arrived in Bangladesh since violence broke out in Myanmar’s Rakhine state on August 24. However, local sources said the number of newly arrived Rohingyas would be more than 170,000 as many of them have also taken shelter in local villages of bordering districts.