* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Yasmine arrived at the Kutapalong camp in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh ten days ago. She is 17, and alone.
Wearing a bright pink cloth, torn, she tells us that it is the only item of clothing she has. “Someone had to give this to me, I had nothing to wear” she says.
In her small makeshift room she sits with another woman and two small children. “Are these your children?” I ask. She smiles nervously, “No, I do not have any children.” We ask if she is sharing the tent with her family. She stops smiling, looks at the floor and wipes and her eye. “My parents were arranging a marriage for me,” she explains. “But then the men came, they killed my parents.”
As her friend translates the story to us she makes the gesture of someone’s throat being slit. This is how her parents died less than two weeks ago.
A SPACE TO CALL HOME
Yasmine’s uncle is her only surviving relative. Under her breath she tells us “I have no family left”. After witnessing her parents’ murder, Yasmine fled her village in Rakhine state, Myanmar, hiding in the mountains before making the journey across the river Bangladesh.
THOUSANDS FLEE
At the height of the crisis, 20,000 Rohingya refugees were crossing the border to Bangladesh every day; the IRC is warning that up to 200,000 more people will arrive in the coming weeks as the conflict in Rakhine continues, bringing the total number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to over one million. These are numbers not seen since the Rwandan genocide, when the world promised a crisis of such magnitude would never happen again.
“My uncle has helped me get food and allowed me to share his tent. But I have no income”. Their small shelter is full of children. In the corner we see all of her worldly possessions huddled together; a cup, a couple of plates, a plastic bottle containing brown water and a bag of rice collected days earlier from a food collection point. It will need to last her a month.
THREATS TO SAFETY
As the camps rapidly increase people are building shelters on rougher and tougher terrain, further and further from the few basic facilities, like toilets and water points. These longer journeys pose very real threats to the safety of these new, vulnerable arrivals, like Yasmine.
Reports of sexual violence against Rohingya women and girls are rife; many are here alone, making them extremely vulnerable. But facilities here are poor and sparse so, to find some dignity, many women and girls are forced to relieve themselves in the forest, exposing them to further risk.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has just released a report highlighting the critical needs of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. It reveals that nearly a third of refugees are forced to defecate in the open and the vast majority (95 percent) drink untreated water; conditions that will lead to a serious health epidemic before long.
Over three-quarters of the surveyed population lack food, cooking equipment, blankets and floor mats to sleep on. Aid agencies are struggling to meet the needs of so many people.
HUGE PROBLEMS
Yasmine’s small section of tent consists of several bamboo canes covered in plastic sheeting. As the heavy rains pound the camp on an almost daily basis, not only are many of these makeshift homes washed away - deaths have already been reported as a result of landslides - but the effluent scattered throughout the camps flows in and around what they call home. Today it is 32 Celsius. The smell sticks in the air.
“I have huge problems,” Yasmine tells me. The support of her uncle has proven a lifeline, but she is still very vulnerable. A single piece of plastic sheeting separates her from the rest of the tent. “I am alone, but what do I do?”
The smoke from their burning villages in Myanmar can be seen from the camp. As we meet new arrivals later that day their stories are shockingly similar. People tell us they want to return home, but not right now.
In Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, the IRC is launching an emergency response focusing on life-saving health assistance, the treatment of severe acute malnutrition and child protection, in collaboration with national and international partners. Over the border in Myanmar, the IRC is gradually resuming critical health and protection programmes in Rakhine state – serving both Muslim camps and Rakhine villages - but humanitarian access remains restricted for humanitarian groups and thousands remain out of reach of life-saving aid.
Catherine Mahony is field director for the International Rescue Committee. An emergency response expert, she has responded to crises from
Uganda to the Mediterranean and now leads the IRC's response to the Rohingya refugee crisis.
