The largest refugee camp in the world is being built in Bangladesh

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) fears that the critical humanitarian situation of the Rohingya refugees will grow worse if Bangladesh decides to pen up the more than 500,000 members of the Burmese Muslim minority group in one huge refugee camp. “Anyone who thinks that it is possible to accommodate so many people – many of whom are weakened or sick due to their escape – in a single camp must be willing to put up with thousands of deaths. Cholera and other diseases can spread easily in huge camps like this,” said Ulrich Delius, the STP’s director, in Göttingen on Friday. Yesterday, the minister for who is responsible for disaster relief, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, had announced that Bangladesh is planning to close down the 23 refugee camps along border to Burma/Myanmar in order to bring all the refugees to a single camp in Kutupalong (in the region of Cox Bazar). According to the minister, the camp is supposed to provide shelter for up to 900,000 Rohingya.

So far, the Camp Bidi Bidi in the north of Uganda is considered to be largest refugee camp – with about 285,000 refugees from South Sudan – and there are more than 200,000 Somali refugees in Camp Dadaab in the north of Kenya. “Bangladesh’s plans are insane – and completely irresponsible, since the country can’t cope with the refugee crisis even today. A new megacamp would lead to even more problems in connection with humanitarian aid work, as the infrastructure isn’t sufficient to provide help for the needy. There will surely also be conflicts and clashes among the refugees,” Delius warned.

“With these plans, Bangladesh is obviously trying to increase the pressure on the international community, to ensure that the refugees will be able to return soon,” said Delius. “This policy is inhumane, and it is a violation of the principles of the Geneva Refugee Convention.” Bangladesh is demanding a repatriation of the Rohingya. “Given the ongoing attacks on the minority group in Burma, however, a voluntary repatriation of the Rohingya is quite out of the question.”

There are still about 5,000 Rohingya refugees arriving in Burma’s neighbor state every day. Since the end of August 2017, a total number of 507,000 Rohingya have sought refuge in Bangladesh, and 300,000 members of the minority have been living in the country as illegal refugees for decades. Among the Rohingya who arrived recently, there are 145,000 children and 50,000 pregnant women or nursing mothers. Yesterday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned about a humanitarian disaster of biblical proportions.

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