Last year was the deadliest on record for Rohingya refugees journeying through the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a new report on Thursday, highlighting that some two-thirds of those attempting the perilous voyages were women and children – risking even further abuse by smugglers.
More than 4,000 Rohingyas living in Cox’s Bazar refugee camps in Bangladesh have received their first COVID-19 vaccine shots, as part of a national inoculation drive to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Wednesday.
Three days of strong winds and heavy monsoon rain on sprawling refugee sites in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar have taken Rohingya refugee lives and wreaked havoc and destruction, the UN refugee agency said on Wednesday.
In this week’s UN Catch-Up podcast, we hear about the pressures facing aid workers and people on the front line in Gaza, an appeal for help for almost 900,000 Rohingya refugees, an alert that Mozambicans fleeing violence to Tanzania have been forcibly returned, and guidance from the WHO on genetically modified mosquitoes to overcome deadly malaria. As ever, there’ll be insight from regular guest, Solange Behoteguy-Cortes.
Under the leadership of the Government of Bangladesh, the Organization for Migration (IOM) and UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched a $943 million plan on Tuesday to “safeguard the well-being and dignity” of Rohingya refugees in the country and their host communities.
At least 15 people have died in a massive fire at a refugee camp in southern Bangladesh, home mainly to Rohingyas who fled neighbouring Myanmar, and 400 are still missing.
That’s the latest on Tuesday from UN teams and refugee volunteers on the ground at Cox’s Bazaar, who need to rebuild quickly ahead of the upcoming monsoon, as UN Children’s Fund spokesperson James Elder, tells UN News’s Daniel Johnson.
More than 500,000 Rohingya refugees who fled a brutal crackdown in Myanmar two years ago, have received identification cards that the UN insisted on Friday were critical to safeguarding their right to return home.
Since 4 July, heavy monsoon rains and wind have pounded the refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, with deaths, displacement and major damage following in their wake, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.
