While armed confrontations intensified and conditions aggravate inside Myanmar, thousands of people continue to cross the border by seeking security in the overcrowded camps of the Cox bazaar, where almost a million Rohingyas refugees are already living in densely populated camps.
“” This is the largest Rohingyas refugee movement in Bangladesh since 2017,“Said Babar Baloch, spokesperson for the United Nations Agency for Refugees, HcrFriday, brief journalists in Geneva.
He said that unlike the mass influx in 2017, when 750,000 Rohingyas fled deadly violence in the state of Rakhine, this increase in refugees took place more gradually.
Argue for asylum
The UNHCR works in close collaboration with local authorities to meet urgent humanitarian needs.
“While the conflict in the Myanmar continues tirelessly, we defend the authorities of Bangladesh to provide access managed to security and asylum to civilians fleeing the conflict,” he said.
Bangladesh has long given refuge in Rohingyas, a mainly Muslim minority community in Myanmar, which is mainly Buddhist.
The country is currently welcoming nearly a million people in refugee camps and recent arrivals – including many women and children – exert new pressure on resources. Many are strongly relying on local solidarity and share limited resources with those who already live in camps.
Call for support
At the end of June, nearly 121,000 newly arrived refugees had been recorded biometricly, although many other residents informally in the camps. Access to an adequate shelter remains a major concern, because the facilities have trouble absorbing the new population.
“These new arrivals join another million Rohingyas refugees piled up in just 24 square kilometers,” said Baloch. “” More humanitarian support is required urgently. “”
Aid partners have been able to provide basic services, including food, medical care, education and essential reduction elements. However, the answer is now serious due to a lack of funding.
The UNHCR warned that the humanitarian call of 2024 for $ 255 million is only funded by 35%. Without immediate financial support, the entire operation could be faced with a systemic collapse.
Action required now
Unless additional funds are guaranteed, health services will be seriously disrupted by September and essential cooking fuel – liquefied oil gas (GPL) – will be exhausted by December. Food aid will stop and educate some 230,000 Rohingyas children, including 63,000 newcomers, may be interrupted.
Despite a strictly controlled and officially closed border, the Bangladesh government has enabled new arrivals to access emergency services in the camps. The United Nations agency has expressed a deep appreciation for this humanitarian gesture in very difficult conditions.
“We do not have the resources to take care of newcomers and also those who were there before them,” said Baloch. “Everything will be affected.”
While the movement of Rakhine’s state continues, UNHCR and its partners urge the international community to act quickly. Without immediate and sustained support, the already fragile humanitarian response in the Cox bazaar could start to collapse – with devastating consequences for more than a million people who are on survival.
Publicado anteriormente en Almouwatin.
