Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh Face 'Severe' Food Shortages, HRW Warns
2020-04-28 -- A coronavirus shutdown imposed on refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh has placed more than 1 million Rohingya sheltering there at severe risk of food and water shortages and disease outbreaks, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.
As a result of the movement restrictions, the presence of humanitarian workers in refugee camps has been slashed by 80 percent, the New York-based global rights watchdog said, without elaborating.
"Bangladesh authorities need to protect against the spread of COVID-19 in the Rohingya refugee camps, but every effort should be made to limit the harm from lockdown measures," said Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director.
"Any COVID-19-related restrictions shouldn't significantly hinder aid groups' ability to provide food, water, health care, and protection," he said.
Mahbub Alam Talukder, Bangladesh's refugee relief and repatriation commissioner, brushed aside the statement from Human Rights Watch, saying "food distribution has been going on as usual."
"The allegation that food and water crises have been going on at camps are unfounded," Talukder told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. "The medical treatment, sanitation, cleanliness and other urgent services have been going on as usual, while maintaining social distancing."
He said Bangladeshi authorities had kept vans carrying water containers on standby at the camps as they had anticipated a dry spell.
"The Rohingya families can even spare a portion from the quantity we provide them," he said.
About 740,000 Rohingya fled to camps in and around southeastern Cox's Bazar district from Myanmar's Rakhine state, beginning in August 2017, after the Myanmar military launched a brutal offensive in response to deadly attacks by a rebel group on government security posts.
They joined hundreds of thousands of other Rohingya who had previously crossed into Bangladesh after fleeing cycles of violence in Myanmar.
Cases of infection surge
On Tuesday, Bangladesh's tally of coronavirus infections surged to 6,462 after health authorities reported 549 new cases. Three new coronavirus fatalities were also recorded, taking the nation's death toll to 155.
However, no COVID-19 cases have been detected yet in the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, where 21 testing centers are located, officials said.
In a move to contain the coronavirus, officials imposed a lockdown early this month in the district, where more than a million Rohingya refugees live in makeshift homes made of tarp and bamboo.
Officials said they had also sealed off the refugee camps in Ukhia and Teknaf, sub-districts of Cox's Bazar, a day after authorities announced the lockdown, which restricts movements.
As a result, HRW said, some refugee camps were facing serious food and water shortages.
Seventeen refugees from four settlements claimed that food rations hadn't been replenished and were dwindling and that some areas had no drinking water, HRW said in a statement, adding that restrictions had led to disruptions in water and sanitation.
"One aid official reported receiving complaints about overflowing latrines in some areas because there are not enough staff members to address these issues," the statement said.
Harassment at checkpoints
HRW said aid workers had also reported harassment at checkpoints while entering the camps in Cox's Bazar amid the pandemic.
"We have heard several cases from our staff of being intimidated by the police at the checkpoints," HRW quoted an aid worker as saying.
But Talukder, the refugee commissioner, debunked such reports.
"We have not received any report that any security situation had arisen due to limits on movements of people to and from the camps," he said.
Sirajul Mostofa, a community leader and president of Rohingya Refugee Committee, told BenarNews that the number of aid workers at the camps had been cut sharply as a result of movement restrictions.
"The number of aid workers has come down drastically," he said, without providing numbers. Refugees, however, were still receiving food aid, he said.
"But if the lockdown continues in this way, we will face food and water crises," he said. "We have come to know from some camps that they are not getting adequate food, water and other emergency services."
Saikat Biswas, spokesman of the Inter-Sector Coordination Group, which coordinates humanitarian assistance for the Rohingya, told BenarNews that all agencies involved in helping the refugees, including international NGOs, were following a coronavirus response plan and had noticed no disruptions in services.
"According to the response plan, the emergency services at the camps have been continuing," he said.
Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
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