Some 73 percent of Rohingya refugees are now living in new spontaneous settlements, said International Organization for Migration (IOM) yesterday.

Meanwhile, some 13 percent of Rohingyas are now living in makeshift settlements, nine percent in host community locations and five percent in formal refugee camps.

Compared to the previous round, there has been a reduction in the proportion of Rohingyas in host community locations and an increase has been noticed in the proportion residing in collective sites.

IOM's newly-released Needs and Population Monitoring (NPM) Round 7 assessed 1,635 locations hosting Rohingya refugees in collective sites and host communities.

On Christmas day, it will be four months since the influx of Rohingyas started into Bangladesh.

Latest figures show that 6,55,000 people have arrived during that period, bringing the estimated total number of Rohingyas in Cox's Bazaar to 8,67,500.

As winter takes hold, IOM and its partners said they are scaling up their distribution of shelter and non-food items in response to the colder weather.

In the past fortnight, over 88,500 blankets and emergency shelter materials, including bamboo bundles for over 1,500 families, were distributed.

To date, IOM has distributed 1,24,000 tarpaulins, benefitting some 5,63,000 new arrivals. Some 32,000 people have also received other non-food relief items.

IOM is also providing the Rohingyas and the affected local population with water, hygiene and sanitation.

Some 1,400 cubic metres of clean drinking water have been trucked into spontaneous settlements with limited access to water and over 68,000 people have received hygiene kits.

Some 1,500 emergency latrines have been constructed to date, supporting 75,000 individuals. Some 29 deep tube wells have been installed and are functional.

As part of its ongoing response to gender-based violence (GBV) and to combat human trafficking, IOM and its partners are offering group support, including information about trafficking risks, and individual counseling sessions for female refugees in specially constructed safe spaces, said the IOM release.

Women and adolescent girls who visit the spaces can take part in recreational and psychosocial activities, it said.