Assessing Rohingya Needs: UN visit begins in Bhasan Char
A UN team yesterday began a four-day visit to Bhasan Char for needs assessment before starting humanitarian assistance to the Rohingyas in the island.
The joint needs assessment mission, comprising officials of the UN Refugee Agency and World Food Programme, will look into the needs of the 18,000 plus Rohingyas.
The development comes following the signing of an MoU on October 9 between the Ministry of Relief and Disaster Management and the UNHCR to establish a common protection and policy framework for humanitarian response to the Rohingyas in Bhasan Char.
"This will also help evaluate what will be the needs of the one lakh Rohingyas once they are relocated to Bhasan Char from Cox's Bazar," a UN official told this correspondent yesterday.
During the four-day visit, the UN mission will also assess the logistical needs of the UN and other international agencies once they begin their operations in the island, under Noakhali, where Bangladesh Navy built a housing facility to ease the congestion and other challenges in Cox's Bazar Rohingya camps.
About a million Rohingyas live in the Cox's Bazar camps and more than 7 lakh of them had fled a military crackdown in Rakhine State of Myanmar in 2017.
The government has planned relocating one lakh Rohingyas to Bhasan Char, but could so far relocate only 18,000 plus Rohingyas since December last year. It plans to relocate over 80,000 more in the next four months.
Since the relocation began late last year, local NGOs and the government have been providing humanitarian assistance to the Rohingyas in Bhasan Char, and the government had been seeking global support.
"Now that the MoU has been signed, different UN agencies -- UNHCR, WFP, UNICEF and IOM -- will be needing to assess what they need to do. Then, they will begin their operations on the ground," said Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) Shah Rezwan Hayat.
On the UN mission's visit, Commodore M Rashed Sattar, director of Ashrayan-3 Project (Bhasan Char), said the UN agencies will also assess the needs of their own, including accommodation, security, transport, food, internet etc, as they will be starting operations soon.
They will also see on the ground the activities already being conducted by the local NGOs.
"Based on their needs assessment, they will begin their operations. We are expecting the UN to start operations at the soonest," Rashed said.
Comments