Bangladesh medical camp serving Rohingyas refugees in no-man’s land

Border Guard Bangladesh has set up a medical camp to extend support to the thousands of Rohingya refugees fleeing persecution in Myanmar, 

who are now stranded in no man's land along the Naikhyangchhari border and waiting to enter Bangladesh territory.

Several thousand Rohingyas from Myanmar, mostly women, children and elderly people, are waiting in no man's land along the Naikhyangchhari border to enter Bangladesh territory.Though Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) remains active against trespassing, more than 10,000 Rohingyas have already managed to get into Bangladesh through several points of the 274km Bangladesh-Myanmar border of Cox's Bazar and Bandarban.

Violence erupted in Myanmar's Rakhine State on Friday triggering a fresh influx of refugees towards Bangladesh. Every day, the Myanmar military is conducting patrols by helicopter along the border. Sounds of gunshots came from the other side yesterday morning.

Some Rohingya people with bullet and burn injuries have been admitted to different hospitals in the last three days. They claim to be the victims of Myanmar military offensive.“A total of seven bullet-hit patients have been admitted to our hospital in the last two days,” Dr Shahin Abdur Rahman Chowdhury, resident medical officer of Cox's Bazar Sadar Medical Hospital, told The Daily Star yesterday.At least 11 others with bullet and burn injuries have come to Chittagong Medical College Hospital.The local authorities are officially denying that already thousands of Rohingyas have arrived in Bangladesh since the outbreak of fresh conflicts in Myanmar. 

“People are coming to Bangladesh like floodwater. My estimation based on reports of different agencies is the number of newly arrived Rohingyas will be 20,000 to 25,000. But I cannot tell the media about it revealing my identity,” said a top official, Sarowar Kamal, upazila nirbahi officer of Naikhyangchhari, Bandarban, claims that no Rohingya has entered Bangladesh territory and those who crossed the Myanmar border are still waiting in no man's land.

UNHCR in a statement yesterday said that a total of 5,200 people came to Bangladesh from Myanmar as of Sunday.
Crossing the barbed-wire fence marking the Myanmar border, Rohingyas have put up a few hundred makeshift tents using polythene sheets and bamboos by the Tambru canal near Tambru Bazar in Ghumdhum, Naikhyangchhari.The refugees set up the makeshift tents on the no-man’s land on the other side of Tambru canal in the last six days. From time to time, they cross the canal in knee-deep water to collect essentials (food, water) from the Bangladesh territory after requesting BGB.

At least 200-300 Rohingya refugees have been seeking treatment daily at the medical camp which was set up two days back,

Dr Mohammad Shahidul Islam, who is treating them, said they are giving the treatment for free.

The patients, mostly children and women, mainly come with complaints of fever, colds, diarrhea, minor cuts and scrapes and skin diseases, 

Meanwhile, a Rohingya refugee, Dil Mohammad, who fled from his home in Medi village, 

six kilometers inward of Myanmar, said he has been staying in the camp for the last six days.

“About 10,000 people from 12 villages in Myanmar have fled the country and have come here,”

 Dil Mohammad said.

A few youths from Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar have also brought relief materials 

to the make-shift camp set up in no-man’s land (Zero point of Tambru border point).

A team of International Red Crescent Society also visited the camp site in  the morning. 

Border Guard Bangladesh today detained 75 Rohingya refugees in Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar and sent them back as hundreds of them continue to try to enter Bangladesh through different unguarded border points since the last four days. 

They were detained around 5:00am from Shah Porir Dwip when they were trying to illegally enter Bangladesh by boats, our Cox’s Bazar correspondent reports quoting Director of BGB Teknaf Battalion-2 Lt Col SM Ariful Islam. BGB provided the Rohingya refugees with some food and medication before sending them back, the official said.Meanwhile, police detained 325 Rohingya refugees from different points including Jelerpara and Jaliyapara in the upazila between 8:00pm yesterday and 5:00am today, the BGB official said.

They were trying to enter Bangladesh territory by boats, he added.The detained 325 Rohingya refugees are now at border outposts (BOP) and will be sent back later in the day, the official said.Many hundreds more also took shelter on no man's land after failing to cross the border since August 25.

Bangladesh saw a fresh exodus of refugees after at least 89 people were killed as Rohingya militants besieged border posts in northern Rakhine State of Myanmar on August 25.