Sitting before a pile of dilapidated shacks and ashes in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, 80-year-old Rohingya refugee Amena Khatun began weeping as she talked about her 60-year-old son, Abul Hair.
“He was well and alive next to us, less than 24 hours ago,” she told VOA. “And then, the fire broke out.”
At least two people were killed and over 4,000 rendered homeless Tuesday by the sudden outbreak of a massive fire in the Rohingya refugee camp in Kutupalong. More than a million Rohingya people reside in bamboo-and-tarpaulin shacks across Cox’s Bazar, with several thousand others pouring in over the last few months, fleeing clashes in their native Myanmar between the government and the rebel Arakan Army.
At around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Khatun, alongside thousands of other Rohingya people in Kutupalong, first noticed the fire.
“My son had initially left our shelter with us when the fire started. But he went back to retrieve some important documents—and never made it out as he got stuck behind the intense flames,” said Khatun.
“Our lives are made to depend on the few documents we do possess as stateless refugees. But now, my son—a loving father of five—is gone along with the documents, all because of the sudden fire.”
According to the Cox’s Bazar-based Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, or RRRC, of Bangladesh, the casualties include at least 19 Rohingya people, who were injured in the fire. The catastrophe also destroyed crucial infrastructure in the refugee camp like water tanks, tap stands, toilets and bath stalls. Mosques and offices of RRRC’s partner organizations were also damaged.
Scant relief efforts
RRRC Commissioner Mohammed Mizanur Rahman told VOA that the fire was brought under control by their officials, including the camp-in-charge, volunteers and the fire brigade.
“We had to demolish some shelters to prevent the fire from spreading. We, alongside the UNHCR and partner NGOs, have ensured that everyone left homeless has a temporary roof to sleep under, starting tonight,” he said.
The U.N. World Food Program, WFP, will serve the fire survivors regular meals “until they are fit to take care of themselves again,” Rahman said, adding that his team hopes to build them new shelters as soon as possible.
While the cause of the fire has yet to be determined, fire service and civil defense senior official Tanharul Islam told reporters Tuesday that an investigation has been launched.
However, survivors of the fire told VOA that as of Wednesday morning, they had not yet received any relief assistance.
“We have not received any help from the authorities or local NGOs yet,” said Khatun, the surviving parent of Abu Hair who lost his life yesterday. “We don’t even know how the fire started.”
A six-year-old boy, Burhanuddin, was the other camp resident killed in Tuesday’s fire. His father, 34-year-old Muzifur Rahman, echoed Khatun’s remark regarding assistance after the tragedy.
“In fact, our Rohingya refugee community in Cox’s Bazar has never been educated on any safety measures or protocols we are to follow to prevent or survive such fires,” he said.
Recurring problem — across borders
Bereaved father Rahman said that he is especially worried about his surviving family members because such fires are “surprisingly common” in the Rohingya refugee camps. “It makes me wonder if many of these fires are caused deliberately,” he said.
Over 1,000 shelters were destroyed in a fire believed to have been started accidentally by a mud oven, mentioned by the UNHCR in their social media post, in the same camp in January of this year.
In 2023, a fire that burned down the shelters of over 12,000 Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar was described as a “planned act of sabotage” by a senior government official, who said that the arson was carried out by militant groups. VOA had reported that the fire was started by feuding Rohingya gangs in the camps.
On the other side of the border, in India, many Rohingya refugees living in camps face the same challenge.
The Social and Political Research Foundation has reported that at least 12 “mysterious” fires broke out across Rohingya refugee camps in India between 2016 and 2021. Many of the incidents of arson are suspected to have been orchestrated by right-wing Hindu nationalist groups in the country.
Responsibility for a 2018 fire in India that wrecked over 50 Rohingya refugee shelters was claimed by the youth wing of the ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP.
Mohammed Arfan, a senior member of the Wash, Sanitation and Hygiene project with Community Partners International in Bangladesh, said that Rohingya refugee families in Cox’s Bazar live in overcrowded and extremely cramped shelters made of highly flammable material, often cooking with gas cylinders in unsafe conditions.
“These families have survived a genocide and lost everything already. Now, they face yet another tragedy. They are not just statistics, but parents, children and grandparents who have lost their homes, memories and loved ones,” he said.
“This fire is a reminder that we need to do more, not just in the aftermath of these tragedies but to prevent them from happening at all.”
Ro Mayyu Islam contributed to this report from Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
