By IANS
After spike in suspected cases of measles was reported
from the overcrowded camps and makeshift shelters
Measles, a childhood killer disease which can be
particularly dangerous among un-immunised and malnourished children, is one of
the major health risks for the refugees who have fled their homes in Myanmar’s
Rakhine State, said the office of the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres, Xinhua reported.
Influx, albeit slowly
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) has said that Rohingya refugees continue to flee into Bangladesh,
although at a slower rate than in previous weeks.
As of Wednesday, 6,13,000 refugees had arrived in Cox’s
Bazar, Bangladesh, since August 25, when attacks by Rohingya rebels on Myanmar
police and security posts touched off retribution.
More than half of new arrivals are staying in the
Kutupalong-Balukhali expansion site, which merges several pre-existing
settlements with new land allocated by the Bangladeshi government, said OCHA.
As of Friday, the Rohingya Refugee Crisis Response Plan
has received $143.5 million, or a third of requirements. Donors pledged a total
of $360 million for the response last month, and the UN urges donors to
disburse this money as quickly as possible.
Guterres bats for dignified return
On Friday, Mr. Guterres renewed his call for unfettered
humanitarian access to Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State and demanded the
dignified return of the Rohingya refugees to their homes.
“We insist on the need to make sure, not only that all
violence against this population stops, but also we need to insist on
unhindered humanitarian access to all areas of Rakhine State, including the
northern part of this region,” he told reporters here in New York prior to his
trip to Bonn, Germany for a UN climate conference.
“We insist on the need to reassert the right of return
... for all the population that fled to Bangladesh and to the areas of origin —
not to be placed in camps, not having access to the places where they left.”
Mr. Guterres emphasized the importance of addressing the
root cause of the problem, which relies largely on the problems related to
citizenship for the Rohingyas — an Indo-Aryan Muslim minority in overwhelmingly
Buddhist Myanmar — and to the legal status of this population “that has been
discriminated and that is stateless at the present moment.”
