A team of volunteers from a Sikh organisation, Khalsa Aid, have reached Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf to provide relief to Rohingya families.
Khalsa Aid’s Managing Director Amarpreet Singh said their team has reached the refugee camps on Sunday.
He said the condition at the border was “miserable to say the least.”
The volunteers will set up a community kitchen and shelter for the refugees, reports The Indian Express.
Amarpreet also said the volunteers came to Bangladesh, prepared with relief for around 50,000 people however, there are thousands of people who are left under the open sky without water, food, clothes and shelter.
“We are providing [the Rohingya] tarpaulin but since the numbers of refugees have overwhelmingly exceeded our preparations, it can take some time to make adequate arrangements,” he said.
“A camp can accommodate at least 50,000 people but in most of them there are more than 100,000 refugees,” he added.
Amarpreet said they will be stocking up materials needed to prepare the community kitchen food in Dhaka.
Although it is difficult to commute in the current weather condition, the organisation intends to provide food to maximum people and will continue doing so till the crisis is over.
Jeevanjyot Singh, a Khalsa Aid volunteer from Jammu and Kashmir, said the refugees are in "extremely bad state" as many have reached Bangladesh from Myanmar by foot without any food or water for around ten days.
The decades-old conflict in Rakhine state flared most recently on August 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked several police posts and an army base. Since then, an estimated 2,90,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
