COX’S BAZAR: Bangladesh will build 14,000 new shelters to house the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees camping on roadsides, in fields and on hills, an official said Saturday.
According to the UN nearly 400,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since August 25 after fleeing a military crackdown launched by Myanmar’s military in response to attacks by Rohingya rebels.
Bangladesh authorities said they would build a massive camp on a 2,000 acre (800 hectare) plot of land near an existing Rohingya refugee camp in Kutupalong in Cox’s Bazar district, which borders Myanmar.
“The government has decided to build 14,000 shelters for some 400,000 Rohingya,” Bangladesh’s disaster management secretary Shah Kamal told AFP.
“We have been told to build the shelters in 10 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.
