MSF: Rohingya refugees urgently require medical, humanitarian aid

The Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has called for increasing medical and humanitarian aid for Rohingyas fleeing to Bangladesh from the latest round of violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state. Around 146,000 Rohingyas have crossed into Bangladesh by September 6, MSF said in a statement on Wednesday. This does not include the 75,000 who arrived after Myanmar military launched a massive crackdown in October last year. “We’ve not had something on this scale here in many years,” Pavlo Kolovos, MSF head of mission in Bangladesh, was quoted as saying in the statement. MSF is an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation. He said MSF teams found that thousands of Rohingyas arriving in Bangladesh were extremely traumatised and had had no access to medical care. Many of them had serious medical needs, like violence-related injuries, severely infected wounds, and advanced obstetric complications. “Without a scale-up of humanitarian support, the potential health risks are extremely concerning,” Kolovos said.

#Bangladesh: over 146,000 people had crossed into Bangladesh, fleeing violence in Rakhine state #Myanmar #Rohingya https://t.co/vFEF2ZXaUp

— MSF International (@MSF) September 6, 2017

Most of those who made it into Bangladesh are staying in overcrowded makeshift camps. Many more are stranded in no-man's land. MSF has set up a second inpatient ward at one of its two existing clinics in the Kutupalong. It is also providing round-the-clock ambulances. Two new mobile medical teams are assessing medical needs and treating the injured. Kolovos said one of the first priorities should be a scale-up of vaccination campaigns against measles and other diseases for new arrivals as vaccination is very low in Northern Rakhine state. “More efforts are also needed to tackle high levels of malnutrition among the Rohingyas already in Bangladesh preceding this influx, as well as those still in Rakhine state.” The MSF first worked in Bangladesh in 1985. It runs two clinics near the Kutupalong camp offering comprehensive basic and emergency healthcare services to Rohingya refugees and locals. MSF also works in Dhaka's Kamrangirchar slum. It has been working in Myanmar for 25 years. MSF’s medical activities in Rakhine state have been on hold since mid-August due to a lack of travel authorisation.