Crisis deepens

Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
An estimated 582,000 Rohingyas have crossed into Bangladesh fleeing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State since 25 August 2017.
With the new arrivals, the total Rohingya population in Bangladesh now surpasses to 882,000, said International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Thursday.
It said an estimated 300,000 Rohingyas were previously displaced by conflict in Myanmar and are living in Bangladesh in makeshift settlements or with host communities.
Even the traumatized Rohingyas continue to pour in daily, and aid agencies struggle to handle the influx.
“The need for aid is overwhelming in makeshift settlements and camps in Cox’s Bazar on the back of growing number of Rohingya refugees. But the humanitarian response is hampering due to funding shortfall and poor road networks,” an official of an international aid agency told The New Nation yesterday.
Terming the crisis “unprecedented,” the official urged the International Community to extend their full support in response to the refugee crisis in Bangladesh.
“The humanitarian response has been inadequate, but this crisis is in many ways unprecedented, particularly in the scale of refugee movement in such a short period of time,” said Matt Wells, Amnesty International’s senior crisis adviser.
He said many refugees have gone days without eating while hiding and fleeing from the army’s attacks in Myanmar. They need food and medical care urgently.
“We’re in urgent need to increase staff on the ground to scale up the relief operation. But we’re facing problem in getting the approval due to bureaucratic tangle,” a UN official said in a statement yesterday.
When asked, he said, the biggest need now is definitely water and sanitation and also health care. These are vital to prevent outbreak of diseases like diarrhoea and cholera.
“The fear of a cholera outbreak now looms large over the camps, where clean water supplies are scarce and many families are drinking out of muddied holes,” he added.
The UN official further said they are in $434 million funding need for humanitarian response plans over the next six months. A shortfall of the fund can worsen the crisis.
“We’re working closely with International Aid Agencies to meet the needs of the Rohingya refugees. As refugees continue to pour into Bangladesh from Myanmar the humanitarian needs is expected to rise further requiring more aid from the International Community,” a high official of Disaster Management Ministry told The New Nation yesterday seeking anonymity.
He said the current aid flow is not enough to support all the Rohingyas. The humanitarian community must scale up their aid operations to respond to the “fastest growing” refugee crisis in Bangladesh.