COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Monsoon rains, relocations and extortion attempts are worsening the living situation in the Bangladeshi camps for Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar.
Several Rohingya camps in this coastal city are flooded from three days of unrelenting rains. People in the camps were being pelted with heavy rain Wednesday while desperately packing their meagre belongings into plastic sacks and bits of clothes and trying to find new shelter
The initial arrivals in the most recent exodus simply settled on whatever patch of land they could find, building shelters of bamboo sticks and plastic sheets.
But as their numbers soared, the local government has started moving them to new areas. Many refused, terrified of being without shelter at all. But the rains washed away shanties or made them uninhabitable.
So they’re moving again.