IOM Press Room
November 3, 2017
Cox’s Bazar - Over the last 48 hours some 4,000 Rohingya
refugees crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar at the Anjumanpara border
crossing point. Traumatized, hungry and fearing for their lives, the refugees
had camped out in the open in an area of no-man’s land between the two
countries. They crossed at low tide where they were met by Bangladeshi border
guards.
Early Thursday morning, the refugees, many of them
vulnerable women and children who had been walking for days crossed into
Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district assisted by the border authorities. Some
1,400 crossed to a transit area to be registered.
The refugees are fleeing the violence, which has
convulsed their communities in Northern Rakhine State since late August. The
refugees join over 820,000 already living in some safety in Cox’s Bazar, where
over 607,320 have arrived since 25 August.
Overnight, a further 2,000 fleeing Rohingya reached the
crossing point and were assisted by the Bangladeshi authorities. They were
being assisted by local authorities and medical services, including
vaccinations, were being provided, along with screening by humanitarian
organizations for those refugees judged to be extremely vulnerable so that they
could receive timely specialized assistance.
The UN Migration Agency, IOM runs a reception area at
Balukhali in the Bangladeshi city of Cox’s Bazar. There, emergency assistance
was being provided in cooperation with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), and
UNWOMEN along with various local volunteer organizations and members of the
local community.
Upon entering Balukhali, the refugees received emergency
shelter materials, dignity kits, sandbags to support self-settlement and
mitigate the impact of heavy rainfall and flash flooding as well as to create
retaining walls meant to reduce the risk of landslides. The IOM site
development unit had already prepared this zone for the relocation of refugees
from high density areas.
“Most people I talked to have walked for eight to ten
days, getting to the border,” said IOM press officer Olivia Headon, “where they
have waited up to four days to cross. They said they had nothing to eat or
drink after the first few days.”
She added some arrivals expressed their desire to find
family members who had already crossed into Bangladesh, where first responders
from various humanitarian agencies provided food and water.
Several Rohingya explained they had hoped to leave
Myanmar sooner, but had to wait to harvest and sell their grain to raise funds
for their journey, Headon explained. “One man told me he had to pay someone to
carry his elderly mother.”
Others continue to arrive in the southern Cox’s Bazar
district. On Wednesday a group of 42 traveling by boat – mostly women and
children – capsized. Four persons including a minor perished, having been
caught by the boat propeller and died from their injuries and drowning.
IOM, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and other responding
organizations are actively working with to improve living conditions in
existing settlements and advocating for alternative solutions to accommodate
the influx of refugees.
For more information, please contact IOM Cox’s Bazar:
Olivia Headon, Tel: +8801733335221, Email: oheadon@iom.int
Shirin Akhter, Tel: +8801711187499, Email: sakhter@iom.int