The current influx of Rohingyas to Bangladesh from Myanmar due to atrocities orchestrated by their security forces in Rakhine State is now the largest mass refugee movement in the region in decades, the United Nations has said. “In total, more than 7 lakh Rohingya refugees are now believed to be in Bangladesh. The latest number of arrivals since August is still, as far as we know, at 429,000,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general told a regular briefing on Friday. According to the estimate of the government of Bangladesh, the figure is around 8.5 lakh.
The UNHCR, the UN relief agency, said on Friday that it is stepping up its delivery of life-saving aid to Rohingya refugees seeking shelter near two official camps in south-eastern Bangladesh, the UN spokesperson informed the briefing.
The agency is responding to a Bangladesh government request to distribute plastic sheeting to as many people as possible to protect them from monsoon rains and winds, he said.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi arrived in Bangladesh yesterday morning and flew to Cox’s Bazar to meet the refugees.
The UNHCR staff are working to organise a 2,000-acre camp for new arrivals, and it will be next to another camp, also run by the UNHCR, which is home to Rohingya refugees who have arrived in previous decades, said Dujarric.
The UNHCR’s priority is to move as many of the newly arrived refugees into the new camp as soon as possible so that it can help the government and other partners in protecting and helping them, he added.
For its part, the World Food Programme (WFP) has now reached at least 385,000 people with food aid as of today (Friday), said the spokesperson.
Together with its partners, the World Food Programme feeds more than 5,000 people daily in the area, he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned about the health situation on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, noting the difficulty of rolling out the emergency response due to the difficult terrain, heavy rains and the [dispersement] of the refugee population, said Dujarric.
“The WHO says the main risk is related to water and sanitation, with poor conditions increasing the risk of vector- and water-borne diseases, he added.
When asked if the UN agrees with the proposals put forward by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in her address to the UN general assembly, Dujarric avoided a direct answer, saying, “Look, we’re not going to go on a point-by-point.”
“First of all, it’s clear that we, and I think the international community, appreciate greatly what Bangladesh is doing, what the people and the Government of Bangladesh are doing, in welcoming these people,” he said.
Dujarric further continued, “It’s hard… we talk about numbers here, but I think you have to visualise the numbers of human beings, of men, women and children, who often are in very dire conditions, crossing over in very dangerous situations, and then Bangladesh has opened its arms to them.”
“The international community has a responsibility to assist Bangladesh. We’re trying to mobilise funds,” he said. “As far as solving the situation, I think the Secretary-General has made his own position very clear with suggestions of what should happen in Myanmar and RakhineState, the first being, obviously, a halt to military security operations — being the immediate point. And of course, we would like to see greater humanitarian access within Rakhine State,” he added.