Dubai airlifts Rohingya aid again
dubai — Over 24,000 plastic sheets have been sent from Dubai to help shelter thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh from monsoon rains and winds.
On Monday, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) loaded 24,670 plastic tarpaulin sheets worth $325,644 (Dh1.2 million) stocked up in warehouses at International Humanitarian City (IHC). The load will be airlifted to help 123,350 Rohingya refugees from 4,934 families who fled the violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state to find refuge in Bangladesh’s Cox Bazar.
The donation flight departs today morning from the Dubai’s Royal Air Wing to Dhaka then by road to Cox Bazar where majority of 430,000 refugees who arrived to Bangladesh in less than a month.
Refugees reside inside two official camps in Cox Bazar, Kutupalong and Nayapara, or in schools and other public buildings converted into communal shelters.
Tuesday’s flight is the third airlift of humanitarian aid UNHCR has sent to Bangladesh its Dubai stockpiles, and the second flight donation made by Dubai Government.
The first relief cargo carried 91 metric tonnes of jerrycans, sleeping mats, blankets, solar lamps, buckets and kitchen sets to respond to the needs of 3,500 families worth of Dh1.7 million.
The second private aircraft, which was also donated by Dubai Government, carried 100 metric tonnes of tents (1,671 tents) worth Dh2.6 million to help cover the needs of 8,355 refugees who fled to the northern Rakhine state.
Toby Howard, head of office of UNHCR in UAE, said two additional flights are scheduled on the first two weeks of October to ship humanitarian aid of tents, kitchen sets, jerrycans, blankets and buckets to Rohingya refugees.
We are able respond across the globe due to the logistics and ports here in UAE.” Toby Howard, head, office of UNHCR in UAE
“Refugees arrive in a very poor state. Women, children and men have been running and escaping the violence of Northern Myanmar, crossing mountains, rivers and jungles over a number of days to get to Southern Bangladesh. They are in need for medical care, urgent life-saving assistance, shelter, food and water,” said Howard.
He said at the request of Bangladeshi authorities, UNHCR is speeding up the distribution of plastic sheeting to get as many people as possible under the minimal of protection from monsoon rains and winds.
The estimated number of Rohingya already living in refugee camps in Bangladesh now stands at more than 500,000 and the limited shelter capacity is already exhausted.
Howard noted that with the support of authorities, the UNHCR has been carrying out registrations of new arrivals to find out exacts numbers of refugees and their essential needs to ensure they have proper shelter, food and medical care.
The UNHCR site planners are also on scene to try to help organise a 2,000-acre (800-hectare) site allocated to new arrivals by authorities.
The new Kutupalong extension, managed by the government and supported by UNHCR, is next to Kutupalong camp, which houses Rohingya refugees who arrived over several decades.
He added that over 100,000 square meters of warehouses at IHC allowed UNHCR to ship large amounts of items from ports across the country and respond quickly to international emergencies.
“Due to the logistics and ports here in UAE, we are able respond across the globe,” Howard said, noting that the UNHCR was able to send humanitarian aid to respond quickly to the 2015 Nepalese earthquake and the 2016 Ecuador earthquake, among other crises. The UAE earlier topped the list of nations for providing humanitarian development assistance for 2016 relative to its national income. Its total donations grossed over $4 billion ($4147 million) in 2016.