New York, July 14 (SocialNews.XYZ) Citing landslides triggered by relentless rains this month that reportedly killed at least 17 people and displaced more than 3,000 others, US-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has expressed serious concerns over the deadly risks facing Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
According to HRW, as more refugees arrive from Myanmar, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has repeatedly warned of deaths and injuries in the congested camps caused by “lethal cyclones, floods, and landslides”.
The rights body said that Bangladesh authorities, the UN, and donor governments should reduce overcrowding in the refugee camps and urgently restore aid for embankments, drainage, access routes, and emergency relocation sites.
“Every monsoon is becoming increasingly deadly for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, with denuded hills sliding away under makeshift structures, as the funding to buttress the camps has dried up. These are not simply natural disasters, but a predictable outcome of policies that put refugees’ lives at risk,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, Deputy Asia Director at HRW.
Citing the Rohingya Coordination Platform, the HRW said that between July 4 and July 9, 286 weather-related incidents were reported across the refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, affecting 26,119 refugees. These included 95 landslides that displaced 4,307 people, partially damaged 2,809 shelters and destroyed 13.
Speaking to HRW, one water, sanitation, and hygiene civil engineer working in Bangladesh said that the settlement design was faulty from the start.
“When the Rohingya first took shelter here, the camps were made by cutting hills and without planned drainage systems. Now, because of funding cuts, sustainable landslide-prevention work, especially brickwork, cannot be done properly, while the Bangladesh government refuses to allow permanent constructions in the camps,” he added.
The HRW noted that newly arrived refugees are particularly at risk because they are not allocated formal shelters and end up renting or buying unsafe spaces.
“I repeatedly asked NGO (non-governmental organisation) staff for a shelter, but they told me shelters were not being allocated for new arrivals,” the rights body quoted one refugee who reached Bangladesh in August 2024 as saying.
His two daughters and two grandchildren reportedly died on July 6 after the makeshift shelter he had built on the edge of a hill collapsed. “I didn’t know the hill would collapse like this,” he said.
The HRW noted that the Bangladesh government has yet to decide on a UNHCR request for more land to accommodate these new arrivals, “who have been crammed into the existing 24 square kilometres allocated for the camps.”
“Rohingya refugees won’t benefit from further hand wringing, but by an urgent and effective response. Concerned governments need to act instead of waiting for the next landslide to sweep away another Rohingya family,” said Ganguly.
Source: IANS
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