UN welcomes COVID-19 vaccination drive for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has lauded the initiative taken by the Bangladeshi government to vaccinate the Rohingyas refugees living in camps in Cox's Bazar area of Bangladesh. The vaccination drive began on Tuesday as a part of the country's mass vaccination process. The UNHCR said that at least 4,000 Rohingya refugees of the area have received their first COVID-19 vaccine dose on the first day of the drive on Wednesday. Johannes Van Der Klaauw, UNHCR's Representative in Bangladesh, states that the first step in fully protecting communities is through the rollout of the vaccine.

The UNHCR warned the Bangladeshi government that while allocating the vaccines, and said the exclusion of Rohingya refugees could be a disaster in trying to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The vaccination drive is being handled by Bangladeshi authorities and supported by the UNHCR, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other humanitarian partners. Van Der Klaauw said, "We are grateful to the Government of Bangladesh for having included Rohingya refugees in the vaccination campaign.” According to a report by Dhaka Tribune, there has been a recent surge of infection within the refugee camps. Since the pandemic began, the refugee community has recorded at least 20,000 COVID-10 cases and 200 deaths.

Why is there hostility against the Rohingya refugees?

After attacks on police check posts by unknown men in Myanmar back in August 2017, the Rohingya community came under scrutiny across the country as they were blamed for such incidents. Even though there was hardly any proof, the ruling authorities of different countries began systematically punishing the Muslim Rohingya community. Human rights groups like the UN have claimed the punishments to be a way of ethnic cleansing.
 

Since August 2017, at least 7,00,000 Rohingya refugees have migrated from Myanmar to Bangladesh. This surge in the movement of Rohingya refugee camps in the search for a safe shelter is among the largest, fastest immigration of people in recent history. According to a report from world vision, even in Bangladesh’s Cox's Bazar district, there are more than 2,00,000 Rohingya refugees who settled there over the years. As of today, there are about 880,000 stateless Rohingya refugees living in Kutupalong, the world's largest and most densely populated refugee camp. The report further said that almost half of the refugees are children. Earlier this year in March, a massive fire engulfed the streets of Cox's Bazar. The fire ended up destroying more than 10,000 shelters, food distribution sites, and clean water and sanitation facilities.

(With ANI inputs)