The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has moved almost 12,000 Rohingyas to safer ground as storms continue to lash the southern part of Bangladesh.
The UN migration agency is racing to support the ongoing relocation of 24,000 people recognized as being at the highest risk from the inclement weather, which has damaged tarpaulin shelters and raised the risk of landslides on the steep, sandy slopes of the refugee settlements.
The inter-agency Site Maintenance Engineering Project (SMEP) - a joint effort between IOM, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UNHCR refugee agency - is also working at full speed to prepare new land made available by the government to the southwest of the existing camps.
"The impact of the recent storms is a worrying indication of what people will face during the cyclone season and at the height of the monsoon," IOM's Emergency Coordinator in Cox's Bazar, Manuel Pereira, said.
“There is no time to lose in supporting those at risk to move to safer ground. The work being done under the SMEP will help save lives."
Many of the estimated 700,000 refugees who have fled the violence in Myanmar since August 2017 have been desperate to find a place to shelter.
As a result, many ended up living in drastically over-crowded conditions, on dangerous, unstable slopes stripped of vegetation and at risk of collapse in heavy rain.
The government of Bangladesh has made 500 acres of new land available to relocate refugees at risk, but due to the topography of the Cox's Bazar area, where much of the land is hilly, major earthworks are needed to prepare the ground.
Only a fraction of the newly available land can be made safe for relocation before the monsoon, which will begin in earnest next month.
Pereira added that relocation is one of a range of measures being taken by IOM and its partners to support the refugees in the months to come.
Others include pre-positioning of key road clearing equipment and emergency provisions, mobile medical services, training refugees in search and rescue and first aid, and raising people's awareness of the risks.
"We recognize the dangers that everyone in the camps will face when the worst weather arrives (and) that is why we are also preparing emergency response measures and supporting the refugees, so they can work to strengthen their shelters and have the skills needed to respond to disaster situations," he said.
