Bangladesh
Since 25 August 2017, hundreds of thousands of people have crossed the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, fleeing violence in northern areas of Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Most of them are women and children. The bulk of the new arrivals are living in makeshift settlements in the Cox’s Bazar district in dire conditions.
Since August 2017, owing to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the northern areas of Rakhine State, Myanmar, hundreds of thousands of women, children and men – have crossed into Bangladesh. These vulnerable people, the newly arrived and those living in Cox’s Bazaar since last year, have no access to income sources and struggle to provide for the minimum levels of food and other essential needs required for survival. This is one of the largest and most complex crises in the region in decades.
The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and IFRC response will provide 200,000 displaced people with support in medical health, mental health and psychosocial support, gender and protection, shelter, relief items, water, sanitation and hygiene, food security, and livelihoods.
An emergency appeal has been launched seeking 33 million Swiss francs to support the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society in its response.
Thousands of people from Rakhine state will soon be exposed to cyclones and monsoon rains in Bangladesh. And their makeshift homes, perched precariously a top sandy hills, and across steep valleys, are not ready.
Forty-five thousand women and girls will receive dignity kits. In addition to feminine hygiene items, the kits come with two scarves, a long dress, underwear, sandals and a solar torch. The clothes cover arms and legs, allowing women and girls to venture out into public spaces in the camps. The flashlight will help them move about at night, including to latrines.
Before the latest influx of hundreds of thousands of people from Myanmar’s Rakhine state began in August last year, Laila Begum says the area close to her house was nothing but forest, with elephants roaming through the vegetation.
More from Cox’s Bazar
Appeals
Press releases on the crises
More than 380,000 children risk losing their future as the situation in southeast Bangladesh threatens to become a prolonged crisis.
Cox’s Bazar/Geneva, 26 October 2017— The Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has made an impassioned plea for more support for people fleeing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Speaking at …
Geneva/Cox’s Bazar, 24 October – The Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Elhadj As Sy, arrives tomorrow in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh where Red Cross and Red Crescent operations are continuing …