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Bangladesh to build 14,000 shelters for Rohingya refugees

DHAKA: Bangladesh authorities will build 14,000 new shelters for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees camping on roadsides, in fields, and on hills, an official said today.

“We have decided to build a massive camp on a 2,000 acre (800 hectares) plot of land near an existing Rohingya refugee camp in Kutupalong in Cox’s Bazar district, which borders Myanmar,” Bangladesh’s disaster management secretary Shah Kamal said.

“We have been told to build the shelters in 10 days. Each shelter will house six refugee families,” he said, adding the camp would have proper sanitation, water, and medical facilities.

“We would take help from the UN agencies,” he said.

Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina headed for the UN General Assembly today to plead for global help coping with the Rohingya crisis, as the numbers seeking refuge in her country following a crackdown in Myanmar topped 400,000.

The prime minister left a day after her government summoned the Myanmar envoy for the third time to protest over its neighbour’s actions.

The United Nations said that the total number of people to have entered Bangladesh having fled the unrest had now reached 409,000, a leap of 18,000 in a day.

M M Alam

M. M. Alam is a Pakistan-based working journalist since 1981. Karachi University faculty gold medalist Alam began his career four decades ago by writing for Dawn, Pakistan’s highest circulating English daily. He has worked for region’s leading publications, global aviation periodicals including Rotors (of USA) and vetted New York Times as permanent employee of daily Express Tribune. Alam regularly covers international aviation and defense-related events including Salon Du Bourget (France), Farnborough (United Kingdom), Dubai (UAE). Alam has reported thousands of events and interviewed hundreds of people in Pakistan, UAE, EU, UK and USA. Being Francophone Alam also coordinates with a number of French publications.