Massive fire tears through a crowded Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh
A large fire tore through southern Bangladesh Sunday night and left 12,000 displaced Rohingya refugees homeless.
The refugee camp in Cox Bazar, Bangladesh, is one of the largest in the world, and the fire has caused considerable damage. Nearly 2,000 shelters were destroyed along with mosques, schools and health centers.
How the fire started is unknown, and there were no casualties reported. Police are investigating if the fire was an act of sabotage.
Over several years, more than a million Rohingya Muslim refugees have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh to escape anti-Muslim violence in a majority-Buddhist Myanmar. There Rohingyas are denied citizenship and other rights.
Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep spoke with UNICEF's Ezatullah Majeed who's in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, about the additional struggles that Rohingya refugees face after the fire.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
On the aftermath of the camp fire
Cox's Bazar is hosting a million refugees in 33 camps. Yesterday at 2:30 p.m., a fire started in Camp 11 and quickly spread to the neighboring camps. Authorities and the fire brigades did their best to control the fire, and around 6 p.m., the fire had become under control. These three camps host 100,000 refugees and 50% of them are children under the age of 18.
We are estimating that 12,000 refugees are badly affected, which is, again, half of them. 6000 or more than 6000 of them are children. 2000 shelters are burned completely. In addition to these shelters, there are service points that UNICEF is also providing support there. The learning centers or the schools, 22 of them completely burned and damaged, destroyed, while six of them are partially damaged. We also support the nutrition program and the child protection programs.
On the continued struggle Rohingya refugees face
These refugees are 100% dependent on the international aid. Fortunately, with the support of the international community, different agencies are on the ground. Some agencies they provide based on their mandate, food, water or education. So the situation was already very bad in the very congested camps these people were living, and their standard of life was really low and it was so difficult for them. Now with this fire, these Rohingya for the second time they become homeless and nothing left for them. They lost all their properties and they need to start from zero.
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Transcript
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Thousands of Rohingya refugees are homeless again. They fled repression in Myanmar. They've been living in a camp in Bangladesh in a district called Cox's Bazar. And then their camp caught fire. Dr. Ezatullah Majeed is with UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, in Bangladesh and joins us from there. Welcome to the program, sir.
EZATULLAH MAJEED: Thank you. Nice to be with you.
INSKEEP: I am looking at a news agency photo of this camp, and I'm seeing little huts, improvised wooden huts, with flames coming out of the roofs and amazing amounts of black smoke. What's it like there?
MAJEED: Absolutely. Situation is very dire. Cox's Bazar is hosting a million refugees in 33 camps. Yesterday at 2:30 p.m., a fire started in camp 11 and quickly spread to the neighboring camps. Authorities and the fire brigades, they did their best to control the fire. And around 6 p.m., the fire became under control. These three camps host 100,000 refugees, and 50% of them are children under the age of 18. We are estimating that 12,000 refugees are badly affected, which is, again, half of them 6,000 - or more than 6,000 of them are children. Two thousand shelters are burned completely. In addition to these shelters, there are service points that UNICEF is also providing support in that one. The learning centers or the schools, 22 of them completely burned and damaged, destroyed, while six of them are partially damaged. We also support the nutrition program and the child protection program. One multipurpose center and one nutrition center are all of them - they are completely burned, and they are at the (inaudible).
INSKEEP: I want to understand the numbers you're giving me. You said 100,000 people in those three camps. So it's as if a small city had caught fire. And within that, about 12,000 people have completely lost their homes. They had almost nothing to begin with, and they have lost everything. Is that what you mean to tell me?
MAJEED: That is completely correct that 12,000 people, they lost their houses, and they have nowhere to stay. So last night, they spent a house in their - with their relatives and the other service points, which there are some facilities. So all of them together, they passed the overnight. They had nothing to - nowhere to go.
INSKEEP: Was it already difficult to get proper resources to this million people in the variety of camps, the constellation of camps that you describe?
MAJEED: The funding situation - first of all, these refugees are 100% dependent to the international aid. Fortunately, with the support of the international community, different agencies are on the ground. Some agencies, they provide based on the demanded food; another one, water or education. So the situation was already very bad in very congested camps these people were living, and their standard of life was really low, and it was so difficult for them. Now with this fire happened - so these Rohingyas for the second time, they became homeless and nothing left for them. They lost all their properties, and they need to start from zero.
INSKEEP: Dr. Ezatullah Majeed is with UNICEF. He is in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, where a massive fire struck three different camps there, home to 100,000 people. Thank you very much, sir.
MAJEED: Thanks to you, and nice to be with you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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