Monsoons could stop aid workers reaching refugees

British aid workers fear they may be cut off from supporting hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees once the monsoon season hits Bangladesh, after a few hours of rain “completely transformed” parts of the camps.

Last week, the first downpour descended on the cramped settlement in Cox’s Bazar which is on the border with Burma where the refugees were being persecuted, while over the last four days two thunderstorms and strong winds have battered nearby areas.

Those on the ground fear landslides and flooding will cause loss of life, destroy the bamboo-and-plastic shacks, block access roads and turn the area into a breeding ground for contagious disease.

Kenny Hamilton, who is leading a project for the British Red Cross (BRC) on mass sanitation in the camps, said there was a “growing anxiety” about how much danger the monsoons could bring.

The 54-year-old, of Glasgow, said: “We saw last week a couple of hours’ rain completely transformed the camp. Generally the environment is dry and dusty, and when the rains hit the dust on top of the ground it went very quickly to quite slick mud, and we found that teams weren’t able to actually move into the centre of the camp because of poor access.

“One of the key features is the topography of the camp is very hilly and shelters are being built in every area that’s possible to actually have and, when the rains come, the paths in between and up and down the various hills become completely impassable.

“As we move toward the monsoon period, that could significantly increase, and our worst-case scenario is that we would be put in a situation where teams wouldn’t be able to get in to the community for potentially up to a week, maybe even longer,” added Mr Hamilton.

Almost 700,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Burma since last August amid reports of extreme violence.