“In each camp, a disaster”: in Bangladesh, the monsoon worsens the situation of the Rohingyas

Published on : 07/29/2021 – 15:38Modified : 07/30/2021 – 12:30

In makeshift bamboo and tarp shelters at Cox’s Bazar camp in Bangladesh, live nearly one million Rohingya refugees, a predominantly Muslim minority persecuted in Burma. Thousands of homes Rohingyas have been destroyed or damaged by landslides, estimated at 300 since the rains began on July 26. Mosques and cemeteries were inundated. After two days of severe weather, more than 14,000 people are now living in damaged and soaked homes, reports the Norwegian Refugee Council.

In some areas of Cox’s Bazar camp, the water level has risen to over one meter, completely submerging the lower buildings and blocking access roads.

Many Rohingya living in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp, the world’s largest refugee camp, fled military oppression in Burma in 2017.

“In the four years that I have lived here, I have never seen such rains”

Ro Yassin Abdumonab is a Rohingya freelance photographer who documents the dire situation in the camp.

Many people live in low lying areas, in valleys, and in very weak shelters. On the hills, the shelters are not very well built, which is why they were destroyed. The biggest problem is that there is no drainage system. As water cannot flow from one place to another, it just stagnated in certain areas of the camp, and accumulated, accumulated …

Heavy Rain, Flood and Landslide
Hundreds of shelters are submerging in flood prone area. Several Rohingyas including infants have died today.some became shelterless
We are:
1st: Victims of genocide
2nd: Victims of fire.
3rd: Victims of flood
4th: Victims of landslide pic.twitter.com/P1iztUzBx4

– Ro Yassin Abdumonab (@md_yasiein) July 27, 2021

In the four years that I have lived here, I have never seen such rains. There are 34 camps in total [à Cox’s Bazar, NDLR], and in each of them there is a catastrophe, be it floods, landslides, erosion, etc.

Many people have already moved to places where they feel safer, for example in community centers, in higher places. Others have gone to live with their relatives. But some also had to stay, without any food.

The damage caused by the rains adds to the daily difficulties faced by the inhabitants of the camp, who already live in precarious conditions. In recent months, the Cox’s Bazar camp has been hit by repeated fires, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless. The Covid-19 epidemic has also increased food insecurity among the Rohingya refugees.

>> To read on the Observers website: Bangladesh: the Rohingya want to undo the barbed wire that surrounds their camps.

Members of the Rohingya Youth Association, created by Rohingya refugees to support young people, mobilized to distribute food to flood victims.

“Half of the inhabitants of the camp could be affected”

Khin Maung is founder and president of the Rohingya Youth Association. He fears the relentless bad weather could turn into a disaster for residents.

Refugees whose homes were destroyed went to live with other people whose homes remained intact. They went to live with members of their families, with friends. But these dwellings are very small and families do not have enough space to accommodate other people.

We still do not know when the shelters can be rebuilt. The locals are trying to rebuild them themselves. If the situation continues, for example if the heavy rains continue for a week, half of the inhabitants of the camp could be affected by this natural disaster. In the future, this poses a significant risk to our people.

The NGOs that run the camps are not doing enough upstream work to prepare for the monsoon. There was mismanagement inside the camps.

“The camps have been devastated by fires, floods, deadly landslides and the Covid, while humanitarian aid agencies cannot operate at full capacity due to severe restrictions,” also explained to the Editor of Observers Imrul Islam, advocacy officer for the Bangladesh branch of the Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the NGOs operating in the camp.

Containment and restrictions related to Covid-19 have forced NGOs to severely limit their activities in the Rohingya camps, which can only continue activities considered to be “Critical” or “essential”. In some areas, humanitarian operations have even ceased altogether, and the number of personnel working in the camps has been severely reduced.

In preparation for the monsoon season, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) distributed kits to strengthen shelters and trained Rohingya volunteers in emergency flood response.

Heavy rains must still continue for ten days. UNHCR believes that more than 5,000 people have had to leave their homes since the rains started, and at least six refugees lost their lives in floods and landslides.