1200 Rohingya Refugees In Bangladesh Burnt Out, Residents Question Lack Of Safety Equipment

Illustration of a Rohingya Muslim refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. (Wikimedia Commons/Tauheed)

JAKARTA - A fire engulfed a Rohingya refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday, destroying thousands of homes, officials and witnesses said, although there were no immediate reports of casualties.

The fire engulfed Camp 16 in Cox's Bazar, a border district where more than a million Rohingya refugees live, the majority of whom fled violence by the Myanmar military in 20217.

Mohammed Shamsud Douza, a Bangladesh government official in charge of refugees said emergency workers had brought the fire under control. The cause of the fire could not be ascertained, he added.

"Everything is gone. Many are homeless," said Abu Taher, a Rohingya refugee, citing CNN Jan. 10.

Another blaze ripped through a Covid-19 treatment center for refugees in another refugee camp in the district last Sunday, causing no casualties.

It is understood that a fire broke out in Camp 16 and spread through shelters made of bamboo and tarpaulin, leaving more than 5,000 people homeless.

"About 1,200 houses were burned to the ground. The fire started at around 4:40 p.m. local time and was brought under control at around 6:30 p.m. local time," said Kamran Hossain, a spokesman for the Armed Police Battalion, which heads the camp's security, citing The National News.

Meanwhile, a Rohingya refugee named Abdur Rashid (22) said the fire was so big that he ran for safety because his house and furniture were engulfed in flames.

"Everything in my house caught fire. My baby and wife came out. There was a lot of stuff in the house. I saved 30,000 taka (350 US dollars) from working as a day laborer. The money burned in the fire. I am now under the open sky. I lost my dream," he said.

Meanwhile, another refugee named Mohammad Yasin (29), complained about the lack of fire safety equipment in the camps.

"Fires often occur here. It is impossible for us to extinguish the fire. There is no water. My house is on fire. Many documents I brought from Myanmar were also burned. And it is cold here," he explained. Previously, a devastating fire last March swept through the largest refugee settlement worldwide in Cox's Bazar, killing at least 15 refugees and burning more than 10,000 huts.

Estimates of the number of Rohingya refugees living in Cox's Bazar range from 800,000 to more than 900,000, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Save the Children.

To note, in 2016 and 2017, the Myanmar military launched a brutal campaign of killings and arson that forced more than 740,000 Rohingya minority people to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, prompting genocide cases to be heard in the International Court of Justice.

In 2019, the United Nations said "gross human rights violations" by the military continued in ethnic Rakhine, Chin, Shan, Kachin and Karen countries. Meanwhile, Myanmar denies allegations of genocide, and maintains a "clearance operation" by the military is a legitimate counter-terrorism measure.