officials in bangladesh have begun
investigating what caused a massive
fire that swept through a rohingya
refugee camp
several people have died and thousands
have been left homeless nearly a million
refugees live in camps in the region
having fled from persecution in
neighboring myanmar
the remains of shanti homes continue to
burn
into the night at a rohingya refugee
camps in cox's bazar
in southeastern bangladesh emergency
services say the fire was able to spread
easily
in overcrowded conditions of the
makeshift accommodation
since we got here we've been trying to
put the fire out
we are struggling with numerous cooking
gas cylinders
and we are trying to deal with this
problem to fight
the flames
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the blaze swiftly ripped through the
cramped housing
onlookers panicked and powerless to do
anything
aid agencies say international help is
urgently needed
the bangladeshi government has been
pushing the muslim minority rohingya
refugees
to relocate to a remote island in the
bay of bengal
however aid agencies say this would not
be a safe place
for this stateless community as the area
is prone to flooding and the island lies
in the path
of deadly cyclones
[Music]
i'm joined now by onofan manan the
country director for bangladesh for the
charity save the children
he's in cox's bazar thanks for being
with us first of all we're getting
conflicting reports about the number of
people who've died in this fire what's
the latest information
you have from the camp
well um it is true that the the
assessments are still ongoing and
uh in a situation like this it's
extremely difficult to get
accurate information um we we have
reports of at least
five casualties including children but
as i mentioned that's still an ongoing
ongoing process now some witnesses say
that
barbed wire fencing around the camp
trapped people
inside during this fire what have you
seen there
um well we do know that uh the fencing
has taken place and is surrounding large
parts of the
of the camps um and that that certainly
hasn't made it easier for uh
refugees to uh to flee or to escape
a fire in the circumstances in
circumstances like this
whereby in such a densely populated and
crowded area
the fire spreads very very quickly
we understand that tens of thousands of
people there have had their shelters
destroyed
how are you and other aid organizations
there
going to deal with that situation
so first of all we we needed to make
sure last night
and and this has happened uh during the
night
uh that these people were provided with
uh with places where they could stay
and community shelters temporarily
learning centers
health posts police posts other
communal facilities have been used to uh
to support these people
and right now the assessment is ongoing
as to
how many um how many shelters actually
have been lost we
we do still have numbers that there is
nearly 10 000 people
or 10 000 households actually um that
have
been confirmed in terms of that they've
lost their shelter
um with reports of of potentially many
more
uh that have also lost their shelter
have been severely affected by
uh by this place and in the coming days
the area needs to be cleared and new
shelters need to be uh
need to be put and we need urgent
support for for that
mr fanman thank you very much for
talking with us that was
the country director from bangladesh or
save the children
you