Fire rages through a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh

A fire spread through a Rohingya refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday, destroying hundreds of homes, though there were no immediate reports of casualties, as per officials and witnesses.

The fire broke out at Camp 16 in Cox’s Bazar, a border town where more than a million Rohingya refugees live, the majority of whom left Myanmar during a military crackdown in 2017.

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Emergency workers have got the fire under control, according to Mohammed Shamsud Douza, a Bangladesh government officer in care of refugees. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined, he added.

“Everything is gone. Many are without homes,” Abu Taher, a Rohingya refugee, expressed his dissatisfaction with the situation.

Last Sunday, a fire ripped into a COVID-19 treatment centre for refugees at another refugee camp in the district, although no one was injured.

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Last March, a horrific fire raged through Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee settlement, killing at least 15 people and destroying over 10,000 shanties.

A government official acknowledged earlier this week on Tuesday that Bangladesh authorities have razed more than 3,000 Rohingya-owned stores since last month, while suffering refugee families expressed their displeasure with the demolitions.

Approximately 850,000 members of the stateless Muslim minority live in Bangladesh’s overcrowded displacement camps, the majority of whom fled Myanmar following a 2017 military crackdown that prompted an international genocide probe.

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“More than 3,000 illegal shops” had been dismantled, according to the country’s deputy refugee commissioner Shamsud Douza.

“The number of Rohingya is increasing. And they need shelters. We are already building sheds on the premises,” he went on to say that humanitarian organisations were making sure the evacuees had access to basic requirements.

However, Khin Maung, a Rohingya community leader and human rights campaigner, told AFP that the camps’ demolitions had already harmed tens of thousands of refugees.

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“Rohingya families are large and the amount of food ration given to them is decreasing. Many families used to rely on the income from the shops,” he stated.