In one of the largest refugee camps in the world, that of Cox’s Bazar, in Bangladesh, live more than a million Rohingyas. To the lack of food, a fire came to be added. This Sunday, March 5, part of the camp went up in smoke.
On the opposite side, Cox’s Bazar is a renowned seaside resort, with endless beaches and lively nightlife. On the tail side, inland, it is an overpopulated shantytown of more than a million people, the majority of them Rohingyas, who arrived in 2017 from Burma (the border is very close) to flee the persecutions of the army against their minority . Refugees today destitute, without prospects, stateless: since the Burmese military coup two years ago, their return to their native country is impossible.
Fire destroys homes Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh https://t.co/3nYQsxk8KV pic.twitter.com/QwzjQLy4mC
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 5, 2023
12,000 homeless people
This Sunday, March 5, part of the camp was ravaged by a fire, the origin of which is not yet known. In the space of a few hours in the middle of the afternoon, the flames destroyed at least 2,000 cabins, schools and health centres.
Bangladesh – More than 2,000 slum dwellings have burned down leaving 12,000 people homeless as a massive fire erupts in a Rohingya Muslim refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar.pic.twitter.com/ldgpHVj4t7
—ⓃⒺⓌⓈ—ⒾⓃⓉ·۰•● (@NewsInt_) March 5, 2023
More than 12,000 people have lost everything and are now displaced inside the camp. In 2021, already, more than 10,000 shelters were damaged in a similar fire and the largest health center inInternational Organization for Migration had been destroyed. Open 24 hours a day, it had helped more than 55,000 people the previous year and its loss complicated the response to the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This year, the disaster is again a devastating blow that exacerbates the humanitarian needs of refugees in Cox’s Bazar. International and local humanitarian organizations are trying to find them temporary shelter and food.
Reduced food rations
The problem is that food is becoming increasingly scarce in Cox’s Bazar. Due to lack of funding, the World Food Program (WFP), which depends on the United Nations, has just reduced its rations. Donations are down, he’s short $125 million. It is the first time since 2017 that it has cut its aid, which risks having devastating consequences for refugees, especially children, many of whom are already suffering from malnutrition and growth disorders. The WFP announced that monthly food aid per person was cut from $12 to $10 in March, warning that further cuts could be “imminent“without an immediate financial contribution.
WFP/@WFP_FR will have to reduce the rations intended for the thousands of refugees #rohingya in Bangladesh.@RapporteurOne Urgently appeals to Member States to review “these shameful and catastrophic cuts”.https://t.co/YMb4Z9KPnE pic.twitter.com/sfKaHxfdfs
— UN Geneva (@ONUGeneve) March 2, 2023
Consequences that go beyond the food issue. Twenty associations representing refugees explain that if food is lacking, it will increase child labour, early marriage, prostitution and drug trafficking, evils that are already part of the sordid daily life of Cox’s Bazar. The UN special rapporteur for human rights in Burma speaks of a weight “on the conscience of the international community“.
Growing anti-Rohingya rhetoric
Privately, foreign diplomats have asked the Dhaka government to allow Rohingya to work outside the camps, in tourism or agriculture. But over the years, Bangladesh’s compassion has given way to outright hostility. “It has been replaced by xenophobic rhetoric“, even explains Ali Riaz, professor of political science at Illinois State University to AFP. A headline in the local press compared the presence of the Rohingyas to a “cancerous tumor“; “They steal our jobs (…) and bring shame to Bangladesh“, accuses Ayasur Rahman, spokesperson for a local organization campaigning against the presence of the Rohingyas. For the moment, the authorities are turning a blind eye to the tragedies of the refugees.
Visiting Bangladesh in August, at the end of her mandate, the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet expressed concern about “growing anti-Rohingya rhetoric“and that the community can serve as”scapegoat“.
In March, the United States for the first time officially declared that the Rohingya minority had been victims of genocide perpetrated by the Burmese army in 2016 and 2017. And in July, the International Court of Justice, the highest court UN Judiciary, considered itself competent to judge an accusation of genocide of the Rohingyas against Burma.