10 signatures reached
To: Prime Minister Theresa May
UK government, rescue Rohingya refugees at risk of death in forthcoming cyclone season
200,000 Rohingya refugees are currently at risk of death due to the approaching cyclone season in Bangladesh. A terrible humanitarian crisis is likely to occur if the international community does not step up with urgent assistance. We demand that the UK government does its part and charters flights to bring as many people as possible to safety, and to set an example to other governments to do the same.
Why is this important?
About the refugee camp at Cox's Bazar:
Cox’s Bazar is one of the most frequently flooded regions of one of the most flood-prone countries on Earth. Bangladesh’s southern tip is fewer than three metres above sea level, with a triangular coast that funnels the ocean together. It makes high tides higher, and puts even major cities such as Chittagong within the water’s grasp.
As well as heightening the risk of floods, Bangladesh’s geography also makes for extraordinarily deadly storms. A cyclone in 1970 killed 300,000 people. Another in the same area in 1991 left an estimated 10 million people homeless. Cyclone Sidr, a decade ago, killed as many as 10,000 people.
Should cyclones bear down on the region again, as they have in the past two years, they could collide with nearly 700,000 new residents sleeping in tents of bamboo and tarpaulin. Aid agencies fear a second catastrophe is about to strike the Rohingya. “Lives will be lost,” says Daphnée Cook, Save the Children’s communications manager. “It’s just a question of how many.”
As many as 200,000 refugees are estimated to be at direct risk from landslides or floods and require urgent evacuation, separate assessments by the Bangladesh government and aid groups have concluded. Most have nowhere to go.
Cox’s Bazar is a safe haven from Burmese government persecution, but it is also an enormous detention centre. At least 27 military checkpoints around the camps restrict the refugees from leaving. Humanitarian agencies have moved at least 15,000 families living in the path of floods or landslides so far, but concede that there is not enough suitable land to relocate all those at risk.
Assisting the Rohingya to build strong homes is also out of the question. Bangladeshi public sentiment is starting to tire of the burden of more than a million displaced people, and it is an election year. Bricks roads and cement drains have been allowed, but not concrete homes. Like the presence of schools, they might suggest the refugees are in Cox’s Bazar to stay.
