Bangladesh announces to build shelters for 4 lakh Rohingya Muslims

Dhaka, September 17: The Bangladeshi government has announced plans to build shelters for up to four lakh Rohingya Muslims fleeing from neighbouring Myanmar. The Army and aid agencies are due to erect 14 thousand shelters, each housing six families, near the city of Cox's Bazar.

"We have been told to build the shelters in ten days. Each shelter will house six refugee families," he said, adding the camp would have proper sanitation, water and medical facilities.

"We would take help from the UN agencies," he said.

The government social welfare agency would take care of Rohingya children who had lost their parents in the violence or who arrived unaccompanied in Bangladesh, he said.

The UN's International Organization for Migration has said it will form a group of all UN agencies and private groups to coordinate aid work.

Earlier, Bangladesh has urged the International community to come up with urgent humanitarian assistance to help the country address the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Foreign minister Mahmood Ali requested the international community to help Bangladesh with urgent aids for the Rohingyas, their transportation to a new camp at Cox’s Bazar’s Kutupalong, and political support to ensure their safe return to their homes in Myanmar.

Mahmood Ali informed that around 300,000 Rohingyas have entered Bangladesh in last two weeks, taking the total number of Myanmar nationals currently living here to 700,000 from 400,000.

The foreign minister told the diplomats that Bangladesh always preferred bilateral solution to this longstanding problem and was successful in repatriating 236,599 Rohingyas through a bilateral agreement in 1992.