Ankara: As the number of Rohingya refugees, who fled violence in Myanmar, reaches over 400,000, the Turkish Red Crescent inked a deal with Bangladesh to build permanent accommodation for 100,000 refugees near the border region.
The Turkish Red Crescent will build a 100,000-capacity camp in Cox Bazaar for the Rohingya people in an area allocated to it by the Bangladeshi government.
Turkish Red Crescent President Kerem Kınık, who is in the region to witness first-hand the tragedy of the Rohingya people and find ways to alleviate their suffering, met with Bangladeshi officials. The steel homes that will be built for some 24,000 families will include a kitchen and bathroom. The camp will also have a mosque, school and a medical center to serve the refugees.
Speaking to Sabah newspaper, Kınık said, “The Bangladeshi government held a meeting in Dhaka on September 14 to organize aid to the Rohingyas.” He said the Bangladeshi government, together with Cox Bazaar governor, military officers had decided to coordinate all efforts, asking aid flowing in to be handed over to local officials for distribution, according to media reports.
Kınık said he had asked Bangladeshi authorities to designate an area for them to build accommodation for the Rohingya people. “We reached a deal after intense discussions. As per the agreement, Rohingya refugees will get the first all-inclusive camp in the region.”
“There are about 1 million Rohingya refugees in the Cox Bazaar region. Turkey was the first country to get permission from the Bangladeshi government to build a permanent camp. We promised to build a camp that can be used if the current crisis ends and the Rohingyas return to their homes.”
The Turkish Red Crescent camp will be within the larger Kutupaland Refugee Camp. Turkish engineers will soon study on the land to build the camp, said Kınık. “NGOs will have designated places to build within our camp. There will be water wells, a school, medical center and mosque in the camp. There is nothing like it in Cox Bazaar. It will set an example to the world.”
He also said the distribution of food aid and medical supplies would meanwhile continue.
It’s noteworthy that, Emine Erdogan, the wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, sent a letter to the wives of world leaders in an effort to mobilize aid for the Rohingya refugees. She wrote the letter only days after visiting Bangladesh to meet with some of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who have fled violence and murder in Myanmar in recent weeks.
The first lady underlined the history of disenfranchising of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, noting that over a thousand innocent people had died at the hands of the Myanmar’s military and hundreds of thousands forced to flee since August 25.
