The number of Rohingya Muslims entering Bangladesh through Bandarban and Cox’s Bazar borders fleeing military crackdown on the religious minority group in Rakhine state of Myanmar has doubled in a week.
‘Based on reports by various humanitarian agencies, we estimate that there could be 21,000 new arrivals in recent weeks,’ UNHCR’s designated public information focal person in Bangladesh Joseph Tripura told New Age on Tuesday about the Rohingyas arriving in Bangladesh.
He, however, said that UN refugee agency could not independently verify the information on the new arrivals in Bangladesh ‘due to a lack of access.’
The figure of new arrivals from Myanmar was 10,000 in the past week, according to an estimate by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
The Rohingya refugees continued to enter the country till Tuesday, when about 600 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh and took shelter at Kutupalang unregistered refugee camp at Teknaf upazila alone.
Neither any government agency nor any non-governmental organisations has been allowed to launch any programme to provide assistance to the new arrivals most of whom have taken shelter at places under Cox’s Bazar. They are suffering from severe shortage of food, warm clothes and medicines, according to local people and Rohingyas.
‘Around 10 thousand Rohingyas fleeing violence in Myanmar have arrived in the district in the past few weeks as we have come to know from various sources,’ Cox’s Bazar deputy commissioner Md Ali Hossain said differing with the UNHCR estimate.
He said that the district administration was yet to receive any directives from the government about what steps they should take now to handle the situation as Rohingyas continued to enter the country despite heightened vigilance along the border.
The deputy commissioner said that neither any non-government organisations nor any international agencies were allowed to work for the Rohigyas, who arrived in the recent weeks.
Vivian Tan, the designated regional spokesperson of UNHCR in Bangkok, told New Age in the past week that the refugee agency was ready to support the government to provide effective humanitarian assistance for these individuals in need of international protection in close coordination with the agencies of the UN Country Team as well as other humanitarian agencies on the ground.
The UN Refugee Agency has urged Bangladesh government to allow safe shelter on its territory for those in need of immediate safety and essential assistance, according to a UNHCR official.
The body of the unidentified woman, believed to be one of about 30 Rohingyas who went missing as a boat carrying them capsized in the bordering river Naf, was recovered from the river at Teknaf about noon on Tuesday.
It was found that the deceased woman was holding a torch in the left hand as rescuers tried to pull her body from the river Naf, witnesses said.
Rohingyas continued to enter Bangladesh through the land and river borders over about past two months as Myanmar troops escalated violence against the religious minority community following attacks on Myanmar’s border outposts on October 9 forcing them to leave their homeland, officials said.