Faruk is a Rohingya refugee – one of nearly a million – living in a camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
“No one wants to be a refugee; the life we have here is not easy. We live in an open prison,” Faruk says. “Life for a refugee is hellish and every day is the same. I can’t travel outside the area of the camps as we need special authorisation to leave, and it is only granted under special circumstances, such as for medical care or emergencies.”
“Sometimes I bite myself to see if I can feel something and I have tried to take my life,” he adds.
CrisisInSight Weekly Picks, 20 January 2021
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Bangladesh
A fire broke out in Nayapara Registered Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar on 14 January. The exact cause of the fire is unknown. The camp hosts about 22,500 Rohingya refugees. 3,492 people were affected and 550 shelters, a community centre, and around 150 shops were destroyed. The fire was brought under control in a few hours by the local fire department, volunteers, and refugees, resulting in no deaths or serious injuries. The shelters, made partly of flammable materials, and the inability to distance these, aggravated the scale of the fire. Immediate needs include tarpaulin, food, liquified petroleum gas for cooking/heating, winter clothes, and non-food items. 90% of refugee households affected by the fire may have lost their identity documents.
After the fire: WFP assists Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
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World Food Programme and UNHCR respond as 500 hundred shelters go up in flames
Gemma Snowdon
At 2:30 a.m. on Thursday (14 January) Nosiba Khatun was woken by the sound of screams and shouts.
Nosiba is one of 22,500 Rohingya refugees who live in the Nayapara Registered Refugee Camp in Cox s Bazar, which is run by UNHCR. She and her family have been living here since the 1990s when one of the first groups of Rohingya fled violence in Myanmar and sought safety in neighbouring Bangladesh.
In recent years, they have been joined by another 600,000 Rohingya across 34 refugee camps. Cox’s Bazar now hosts the world’s biggest refugee settlement, where the World Food Programme (WFP) provides food, nutrition and livelihood training programmes.
UN accused of paying lip service on repatriation while thousands of Rohingya wait on barren island
Dhaka denies the accusation as officials meet Myanmar counterparts to discuss ways to send the Rohingya home
Rohingya refugees arrive on the island of Bhasan Char
Credit: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters
The days on the barren silt island of Bhasan Char in the Bay of Bengal have developed into a mundane rhythm for Fatima, a single mother with a teenage daughter, who was transferred there in December along with hundreds of Rohingya from the overcrowded refugee camps on the Bangladeshi coastline.
She spends her time going to the market, cooking and sitting. The grey breeze-block barracks on the island lack character or home comforts, but they are, she says, an improvement on the flimsy tarpaulin and bamboo huts in the sprawling camps that house more than a million people.