Over 500 Shanty Huts of Rohingya Refugees Destroyed by Fire in Bangladesh

NAYAPARA: A massive blaze claimed more than 500 shanty homes in a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh.

According to reports, the massive inferno left 3,500 people homeless while 150 shops were damaged with no serious casualties registered.

Rezwan Hayat, Head of Refugee Cell in Bangladesh said that the incident took place at around 2 am at the Nayapara camp.

"The houses were made of tin and bamboo. We have immediately supplied hot food and bamboo and tarpaulins to the affected people to reconstruct their homes," he said.

It is to be mentioned that Nayapara is home to thousands of Rohingya refugees originally from Myanmar, including many who have been living there since the 1990s.

Meanwhile, UNHCR in Bangladesh on its official Twitter handle wrote, "A fire broke out last night in Nayapara Camp. Volunteers and refugees were the first responders, then the fire dept. rushed in Coordinated response ongoing w/ partners and authorities. 0 casualty. Over 550 refugee shelters, 150 shops damaged."

The cooking gas cylinder used widely in the camp was the suspected cause.

Meanwhile, in the northeastern state of Assam, 13 Myanmar Rohingya Muslims were arrested on December 24, 2020.

An Assam Police official in Karimganj said that acting on information, 13 Rohingyas, suspected to be refugees fleeing from their camps in southeast Bangladesh, were held on Wednesday from Churaibari in southern Assam.

According to the police, the foreign nationals including six children and three women were detained from a Guwahati-bound night bus from Agartala. The adult men and women detainees are aged between 20 and 33 years.

"The Rohingyas might have entered Tripura from Bangladesh before moving for Guwahati by bus in search of jobs," the police official said. "During the initial questioning, the Rohingyas admitted that they were trying to go to Hyderabad or Jammu in search of work," the official said.

Rohingyas from refugee camps in Bangladesh often enter the northeastern states of India illegally in search of jobs or get trapped in human trafficking. Over 738,000 Rohingyas from Rakhine in western Myanmar have taken shelter in camps in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh since the beginning of the ethnic troubles in August 2017, in Myanmar following a wave of violence and persecution, which has been described by the United Nations as attempted ethnic cleansing.

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