Violence and grief follow Rohingya into refugee camps
Eman, 18, is one of almost a million Rohingya refugees who escaped from the violence in Myanmar and is living in squalid conditions in the massive refugee camps of southern Bangladesh.
Extreme violence by the Myanmar military in August last year forced the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in the majority-Buddhist country, to flee Rakhine State.
“Seeing no possibility to stay in Myanmar, we started walking through the mountains towards Bangladesh,” said “Eman”, from her camp in the town of Cox’s Bazar.
“After crossing the border we saw three Bangladeshi men and they threatened us. They stole our money, mobiles and belongings. My brother was stabbed in his abdomen with a knife. He was not severely hurt but he was bleeding.
“We stayed with my grandparents for eight days and later we built a house with bamboo and plastic sheets.”
Doctors without Borders has said the monsoon rain is likely to bring even more despair.
It will have a “very severe and dramatic impact on the lives of those living in the camps, and has exceeded our expectations in terms of the rapidly deteriorating living conditions there”, said Sam Turner, the charity’s emergency co-ordinator in Cox’s Bazar.
Mr Turner said the settlements were crowded and did not meet the usual standards for humanitarian refugee camps. The rain and wind compound the threat.
The first rain came last week. It left three people dead and damaged or destroyed 900 shelters, 15 water points, two health centres and two food distribution sites.
Eman was with her husband at the charity’s Kutupalong clinic, where he is being treated after he was hit by a bus as he walked to his sister’s shelter. He lost part of his thigh, leaving him paralysed.
“My husband used to do everything before the accident,” she said. “Now he cannot even move from the bed.”
For three days they have been at the clinic, that has served about 400,000 patients – 14,000 a week – between August and March.
“My husband is looked after but I don’t know when he will improve,” Eman said.