'Princess Mary's visit to Rohingya camps great encouragement to humanitarian community'

Danish Crown Princess Mary Elizabeth’s recent visit to Rohingya camps has been a great encouragement to the entire humanitarian community in Cox’s Bazar, said Danish Refugee Council (DRC) Country Director Sumitra Mukherjee.

The DRC country director said they see the visit as a historical day and also an opportunity to reinforce their commitment and thanked the Bangladesh government for sustaining and strengthening support for the Rohingya people.

Princess Mary visited Bangladesh with a climate sustainability agenda.

Tuesday, she went to meet the Rohingya in the world’s largest complex for displaced people, hosted in Cox’s Bazar to see the work of DRC.

Mary, a patron of DRC since 2005, was accompanied by Flemming Møller Mortensen, the Danish minister for development cooperation, and Winnie Estrup Petersen, the ambassador of Denmark to Bangladesh.

During the visit to Cox’s Bazar and the camps that by now host close to one million Rohingya from Myanmar, the delegation was joined by Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Shah Rezwan Hayat, and went to several of the 34 settlements.

There, they saw examples of DRC’s soil erosion management and environmental restoration works in Camp 5, 6, and 8 West.

The Danish princess met and interacted with Rohingya families to learn about their situation and experiences in Bangladesh, speaking particularly with the women and children about their living conditions, humanitarian needs and concerns.

While in the camps, the visitors walked through landslide-prone areas where soil retention where geotextile and bamboo fencing are among the recent and environment-friendly land stabilisation solutions.

Here, also large-scale tree plantation has been implemented by DRC to combat the consequences of monsoon rains and the effects of climate change.

Following their tour through the Rohingya camps, Mary and the delegation went to Raja Palong union in Ukhiya to meet host communities and see DRC initiatives there.

A meeting with a women’s group from Raja Palong offered a unique opportunity for the visitors to learn about the role and experiences of communities hosting the displaced Rohingya populations.

DRC has been operating in Bangladesh since 2014, and in 2017 started providing emergency assistance to the Rohingya population arriving from Myanmar.