UNHCR seeks adequate medical assistance for Rohingyas affected in Bhasan Char

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday said the safety and wellbeing of Rohingyas are their main priority.

The UN agency noted they will continue to urgently seek additional information on the condition of those affected, and urged that they receive adequate medical assistance.

UNHCR said they are “deeply concerned” to learn of reports on Rohingyas who were injured during today’s events at Bhasan Char.

“We regret that those affected reportedly include children and women,” Louise Donovan, a spokesperson at the UNHCR, Cox’s Bazar, said in a statement.

Rohingays in Bhasan Char went unruly when two senior UN officials - Gillian Triggs, the assistant high commissioner for protection, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and Raouf Mazou, assistant high commissioner for operations, were visiting it.

During today’s visit, the UNHCR delegation was able to meet with a large group of refugees and listen to the various issues that they raised, which the delegation will further discuss with the Bangladesh authorities, said the UNHCR spokesperson.

The delegation now arrived in Cox’s Bazar and is scheduled to visit Rohingya camps there on Tuesday before returning to Dhaka to meet senior government officials.

The two UNHCR officials arrived here on Sunday on a four-day visit to see the Rohingya situation both in Cox's Bazar Rohingya camps and Bhasan Char.

Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar district and Bhasan Char and Bangladesh is expecting UN agencies engagement in Bhasan Char within the next couple of months to provide humanitarian services there.

The government has a plan to shift 100,000 Rohingyas in Bhasan Char gradually while around 20,000 are already shifted there.