UN: 125,000 have fled to Bangladesh

Crisis looms as Rohingya refugees continue to flood in

Nearly 125,000 mostly Rohingya refugees have entered Bangladesh since a fresh upsurge of violence in Myanmar on Aug 25, the United Nations said as fears grow of a humanitarian crisis in the overstretched camps.

The UN said 123,600 had crossed the border in the past 11 days from Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Their arrival has raised fears of a fresh humanitarian disaster as already crowded camps in Bangladesh struggle to cope with the influx.

Many are sleeping in the open air and are in dire need of food and water after walking for days to reach safety, the UN’s main coordinator in Bangladesh said in a report yesterday.

“As a result of flood-like arrivals of new refugees, a massive humanitarian crisis is unfolding here,” said Bangladeshi rights campaigner Nur Khan Liton.

“People are staying in refugee camps, on the roads, schoolyards and under open skies. They are clearing forest to create new settlements. There is an acute crisis of water and food.”

The latest unrest broke out when a Rohingya militant group launched a series of coordinated ambushes on Myanmar security posts in response to what it said was a fresh crackdown.

Bangladesh border officials say those fleeing are also facing the risk of landmines on the frontier between the two countries.

Two Rohingya children were injured yesterday by an apparent landmine blast as they tried to flee unrest in Myanmar, border guard commander Manzurul Hasan Khan said.

“They stepped onto some sort of explosives this morning and one of them lost his leg,” Khan said.

A Rohingya woman had a leg blown off in the same area on Monday, raising fears that the border area had been deliberately mined.