By Nita Bhalla
NEW DELHI (Thomson
Reuters Foundation) - Tens of thousands of Muslims who have fled violence in
northern Myanmar are living in "extremely poor" conditions in
neighbouring Bangladesh and need better shelter as the country's cyclone season
approaches, the Red Cross said on Monday.
Some 75,000 Rohingya
people from Rakhine state have arrived in Bangladesh since Myanmar's military
began a security operation last October; in response to what it says was an
attack by Rohingya insurgents on border posts.
Many refugees are
living in "unplanned and overcrowded settlements" in Bangladesh's
Cox's Bazar district, said the Red Cross, and do not have adequate food, clean
water, shelter materials or medicines.
"Most don't
have access to regular medical services and they are not getting enough food or
sufficient nutrition," said Azmat Ulla, Bangladesh Head of the
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, in a
statement.
"Shelter is
also a big issue. Many are living in sub-standard temporary structures. We need
to scale up our support, particularly as there will be additional challenges
ahead with the onset of the flood and cyclone season."
Bangladesh's April
to December cyclone season often causes mass evacuations from coastal low-lying
villages and widespread crop and property damage.
Cox's Bazar, located
on the southeast coast, is prone to the cyclones formed in the Bay of Bengal --
and some of the most vulnerable residents are the thousands of displaced
Rohingya people who live in make-shift camps in the district.
Rohingya Muslims
have been fleeing apartheid-like conditions in northwestern Myanmar, where they
are denied citizenship, since the early 1990s. There are now at least 300,000
who have crossed into Bangladesh, according to the Red Cross.
Around 30,000 are
registered as refugees and are living in the two official camps in Cox's Bazar.
But most are in makeshift camps or with host communities, said the Red Cross,
where they lack access to basics such as toilets and healthcare.
A U.N. report last
month, based on interviews with survivors in Bangladesh, said the Myanmar army
and police had committed mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya in a campaign
that may amount to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.
(Reporting
by Nita Bhalla @nitabhalla, Editing by Ros Russell. Please credit the Thomson
Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers
humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change
and resilience. Visit news.trust.org)