RRRC: No Rohingya refugee has died of starvation so far

Although an overwhelming number of Rohingya refugees have crossed over to Bangladesh in nearly four weeks, none of the refugees have died of starvation in the camps so far, officials said on Wednesday. Shamsud Douza, additional commissioner at Cox's Bazar-based Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC), made the remark during a divisional committee meeting in Chittagong. “Fortunately, no major disease has broken out in the camps yet, despite the scarcity of sanitation and drinking water facilities,” the RRRC official said, adding that both government and private organisations had arranged for dry food and drinking water to be supplied to the refugees. “Five teams from the Department of Public Health Engineering have been supplying drinking water to the refugee camps. We are also working on installing tube-wells,” he added. He further said a massive vaccination programme had been launched for the Rohingya children. The meeting's agenda was identifying more than 421,000 Rohingya refugees who fled to Bangladesh to escape brutal persecution by Myanmar security forces in their homeland, the Rakhine state. Chittagong Divisional Commissioner Md Abdul Mannan presided over the meeting, which was attended by high officials of different government agencies, including Chittagong Range Deputy Inspector General SM Moniruz Zaman, Chittagong Metropolitan Police Commissioner Iqbal Bahar, DGFI official Brig Gen Adil Chowdhury, Captain Shahidul Islam of Bangladesh Coast Guard, Chittagong district Deputy Commissioner Zillur Rahman Chowdhury, Noakhali district Deputy Commissioner Mahbub Alam Talukdar, Col Anis of Border Guard Bangladesh, and Chittagong Forest Conservator Zoglul Hossain. Speaking at the meeting, Divisional Commissioner Mannan pointed out that misleading information regarding the Rohingya crisis was being circulated in the media, particularly on TV talk shows. “Discussants at TV talk shows should present only accurate information since these programmes are telecast worldwide. We should not send out any wrong message to the world. The government has taken the side of the Rohingya refugees on humanitarian grounds,” he said. He further said Bangladesh had a long experience of facing challenges regarding relief and refugee management. “This time around, we will be able to prove our efficiency in this regard.”