Bangladesh prepares more camps for Rohingya migrants

Bangladesh authorities are preparing more camps in Cox’s Bazar district for the tens of thousands of Rohingya migrants who have arrived in the South Asian nation after fleeing deadly violence in Myanmar.

“For the time being they will stay wherever they are now at the moment. We will soon start documentation of them with the help of Passport Department and then will take them to Balukhali (the new camp) once it is ready,” Cox’s Bazar district spokesperson told Efe news on Thursday.

The process of demarcation of the new camp at Balukhali started on Wednesday and is expected to be completed on Thursday.

Once the demarcation process is complete, the Bangladeshi passport department and the local authorities will begin to register the photos and fingerprints of the more than 150,000 people who have arrived recently.

Thousands of Rohingyas have arrived in Bangladesh by sea, river and land, fleeing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where the army has been carrying out a military campaign following an insurgent attack on August 25.

An attack in October 2016 had spurred another military campaign in Rakhine, which caused some 85,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim minority to flee to Bangladesh.

Between 300,000 and 500,000 Rohingyas live in Bangladesh, out of whom only about 32,000 have refugee status.