Fires often break out in crowded makeshift camps
Dhaka:
Eight Rohingya refugees were injured in a fire caused by a gas leak at a camp on the remote Bhasan Char island on Saturday, police said.
Kawsar Alam Bhuiyan, chief of police of Bhasan Char, said a fire broke out in a house in the colony area and eight refugees suffered partial burns and were taken to a government hospital in Noakhali district.
He said five children were among the injured.
Bangladesh has moved around 32,000 people from border camps in the southeastern region of Cox’s Bazar to Bhasan Char island since late 2020.
The move has been met with opposition, especially from aid groups who fear catastrophe in a country that often faces severe weather, especially along the coast.
The government dismissed safety concerns about the island in favor of building flood defences, housing for 100,000 people, a hospital and a cyclone centre.
Nearly a million members of Myanmar’s Muslim minority live in crowded bamboo and plastic camps in Cox’s Bazar, most of them fleeing a 2017 military crackdown.
Fires often broke out in the crowded makeshift camps. A fire in March 2021 killed at least 15 refugees and destroyed more than 10,000 homes.
Last year, nearly 2,800 shelters and more than 90 facilities, including hospitals and learning centers, were destroyed in fires, leaving about 12,000 people homeless. The team investigating the fire described it as a “planned act of vandalism”.
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