UAE flies hundreds of tonnes of aid to Myanmar’s displaced Rohingya
Hundreds of tonnes of aid from the UAE will be distributed to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh today.
Two emergency aid flights – sponsored by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – left the UAE yesterday carrying emergency relief for 25,000 refugees.
The first flight, a UNHCRchartered Boeing 777, delivered 1,671 family tents, worth about Dh2.7m, which will provide shelter for almost 8,500 refugees.
It carried 91 tonnes of aid including much-needed shelter materials, jerrycans, blankets, sleeping mats and other essential items from UNHCR’s global stockpile in Dubai.
The second flight was organised by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, who responded to the emergency appeal by sending almost Dh827,000 worth of emergency aid to Bangladesh, according to Adrian Edwards, a spokesperson for the UNHCR.
The cargo has been loaded on to lorries that will take the aid to the refugee camps at Cox’s Bazar in south-east Bangladesh, Mr Edwards said.
The aid shipments come at a time when the capacity of Bangladeshi refugee camps in Kutupalong and Nayapara has been overwhelmed, and refugees have been forced to temporarily stay in makeshift shelters along the roadsides.
Toby Harward, head of the UNHCR office in the UAE said “the UAE, and the facilities at International Humanitarian City in Dubai, is a critical logistical hub that allows UNHCR to respond rapidly in times of emergency. The country’s leadership has repeatedly responded generously to the many humanitarian challenges that we face today”.
Further flights are being planned, delivering emergency aid for about 120,000 refugees.
It is not the first time the Ruler of Dubai has answered the call for humanitarian aid.
Earlier this year, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid and Princess Haya of Jordan funded flights to provide core-relief items for South Sudanese refugees in Uganda.
Meanwhile, thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled violence in Myanmar could be forced to make their new homes on a barren Bangladeshi island that floods every year.
The Bangladesh government appealed for international support to move the Rohingya to the island as the impoverished country confronts a growing crisis over where to house the influx after a military crackdown in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
More than 300,000 Rohingya have poured into Bangladesh since the latest flare in violence on August 25, adding to about 300,000 refugees already living in overflowing UN-run camps in Cox’s Bazar district, close to the border with Myanmar.
Refugees are continuously
arriving at Kutupalong and Nayapara camps, where the UNHCR operates. With more than 70,000 refugees in the two camps, the total population has more than doubled since August.
Some of the refugees already living in the camps are now hosting up to 15 newly-arrived families in their small huts, with more spilling on to walkways under plastic sheets.
The UNHCR said it had opened up “public buildings and set up large tents to accommodate the new arrivals”.
“Many of the new refugees are staying in the makeshift settlements or among local Bangladeshi host communities who generously share whatever resources they have,” Mr Edwards said.
He said the spontaneous sites required proper planning to ensure basic shelter, safety and hygiene standards.
UNHCR’s assistant high commissioner for operations, George Okoth-Obbo, is set to meet with Rohingya refugee families in Cox’s Bazar to better understand their needs and review his organisation’s response.
He is also scheduled to meet Bangladeshi authorities to underline UNHCR’s readiness to ramp up its response and provide support to the government in addressing the humanitarian needs and ensuring the protection of refugees.