Cox’s Bazar, just beyond the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh, the Bengali government is home to the largest refugee community in the world: 1.1 million Rohingya ethnic and Muslim refugees
The man lives at the Kutupalong camp, the world’s largest refugee camp, said Mahbub Alam Talukder, the commissioner for Refugee Relief and Repatriation. A second man who lives in the host community and is a Bangladesh citizen had tested positive for the virus as well, he said
A massive fire broke out early Tuesday in an overcrowded camp that houses nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar district in southern Bangladesh.
Bangladeshi authorities meanwhile on Thursday confirmed 112 new cases of the pneumonia-like disease and one death from it. That took the national tally to 330 cases and 21 deaths since the first case was detected in the country of 165 million people early last month
older people interviewed by Amnesty International had received little specific information about COVID-19. Before large gatherings were barred and preventative measures like social distancing ordered, there were some informational meetings in the camps, but many older people were not informed. Those who knew about them were unable to attend because of physical disabilities that made it difficult, if not impossible, to navigate the camps’ hilly terrain
The United Nations last week launched an appeal for more than $800 million this year to support some 855,000 Rohingya refugees and 444,000 Bangladeshis in host communities in southeastern Bangladesh
According to a local human rights activist, Monday’s killings marked the deadliest day of violence involving suspected Rohingya criminals in Bangladesh
Myanmar views the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and systematically discriminates against them by denying them citizenship, freedom of movement, and access to jobs, health care, and education
There are an estimated 1,500 Rohingya Christians among more than 700,000 predominantly Muslim Rohingya forced to flee to Bangladesh as the result of a brutal Myanmar military offensive in Rakhine State in 2017, said HRW, which described the campaign as ethnic cleansing
The ARSA insurgent group, which claims to be fighting oppression of Rohingya Muslims, carried out attacks on police and army posts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in August 2017