Bangladesh to Build Thousands of Shelters for Rohingya Refugees
Bangladesh will construct 14,000 shelters in the Cox’s Bazar region to house the more than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Myanmar in the last three weeks.
“We have been told to build the shelters in 10 days. Each shelter will house six refugee families,” Bangladesh’s disaster management secretary Shah Kamal told Agence France-Presse, adding there will be sanitation, water and medical facilities in the camp.
Bangladeshi authorities have begun restricting movement for Rohingya in an attempt to control their spread to other towns.
Police said Sunday that refugees would not be able to leave their camps or travel “from one place to another by roads, railways or waterways.”
Fearing an outbreak of disease in the camps, authorities have begun to immunize refugees, including 150,000 children, for measles, rubella and polio.
Two Million Internally Displaced Persons in Yemen
Some 2 million Yemenis have been internally displaced due to the ongoing war in the country, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said.
Of the 1,980,510 internally displaced persons (IDPs), 84 percent were forced from their homes more than a year ago. Another 946,044 IDPs have been able to return home.
Moreover, there are 280,623 refugees and asylum seekers, mostly from Somalia and Ethiopia, in the country.
“UNHCR remains deeply concerned by the significant impact the escalating hostilities are having on the protection of civilians and on the increase of newly displaced persons,” the report said.
Some 20.7 million people are in need in the country, UNHCR said, but only 47 percent of the $114.6 million requested for humanitarian assistance has been provided.
Libyan Coastguard Intercepts Thousands of Migrants at Sea
The Libyan coastguard intercepted more than 3,000 migrants attempting to reach Europe via the central Mediterranean route since last week, reported Agence France-Presse.
Some 1,074 migrants aboard eight boats were intercepted near Sabratha, about 28 miles (45km) west of Tripoli, on September 16, coastguard spokesperson Ayoub Qassem told reporters Sunday. The migrants were transferred to a detention center in Zawiya, he added.
The Libyan coastguard has recently stepped up operations to stop migrants from crossing to Europe from Libya after the E.U. and Italy agreed to provide financial support.
Human rights activists have criticized the agreement, arguing that migrants face inhumane conditions in Libyan detention centers.
While the number of arrivals in Europe has significantly decreased in 2017, the rate of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean has increased, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Recommended Reads
- BBC: The Waiting Game: Life in a North Italy Migrant Camp
- Journal of Human Rights Practice: Refugee Protection and the Art of the Deal
- International Centre for Migration Policy Development: How Does the Media on Both Sides of the Mediterranean Report on Migration?
- The Sydney Morning Herald: Antenna Film Festival: Mr Gay Syria Highlights Plight of Gay Syrian Refugees