Rohingya refugees straining relief services

U.N. agency requesting land for needed camps

KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh — A massive influx of Rohingya refugees fleeing recent violence in Myanmar has pushed aid services in Bangladesh to the brink, with established camps already beyond capacity, aid workers said Tuesday.

The U.N. refugee agency said a total of 123,000 refugees have fled western Myanmar since Aug. 25.

“The numbers are very worrying. They are going up very quickly,” said UNHCR spokeswoman Vivian Tan.

The agency was pleading for assistance, saying it needed more land so it could set up new camps to accommodate refugees.

“Most have walked for days from their villages — hiding in jungles, crossing mountains and rivers with what they could salvage from their homes,” the agency said in a statement.

“An unknown number could still be stranded at the border,” it said.

Indeed, a Rohingya Muslim whom The Associated Press reached by phone said she and thousands of fellow villagers are now stuck along the coast, hoping to flee to nearby Bangladesh by boat.

The 18-year-old provided AP with cellphone photographs she took Tuesday along the beach in southern Maungdaw township in Rakhine state. Several show hundreds of people sitting on the ground, with small sacks or plastic bags holding their meager belongings. Only some had tarps or umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun.

The teenager, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for her safety, said her family’s house was burned Aug. 25, right after Rohingya insurgents attacked Myanmar border guard police outposts.

The military has said nearly 400 people, most of them insurgents, have died in clashes. Security forces responded to the attacks with days of “clearance operations” the government says were aimed at rooting out insurgents.