Oxfam, an international relief organization encompassing NGOs in more than 90 countries, plans to raise an approximate $3 million to be able to reinforce the response to the coronavirus outbreak in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, Oxfam Country Director in Bangladesh Dipankar Datta told Sputnik in an interview
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th May, 2020) Oxfam, an international relief organization encompassing NGOs in more than 90 countries, plans to raise an approximate $3 million to be able to reinforce the response to the coronavirus outbreak in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, Oxfam Country Director in Bangladesh Dipankar Datta told Sputnik in an interview.
On Thursday, the first two cases of the coronavirus infection were confirmed in the Cox's Bazar camps that host refugees from the Muslim minority group of Rohingya. One was detected in Kutupalong, a camp housing an approximate 700,000 people, and the other one in a smaller camp named 1E.
"We need more funds to immediately ramp up hygiene, health, and protection facilities to save lives. Oxfam aims to raise approximately $3 million to be able to ramp up its response in the camps. To date, less than a fifth of the UN Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya refugees has been funded," Datta said.
Acknowledging that the global focus of attention is currently the coronavirus pandemic, he called upon the international community to not "turn its back" on high-risk populations, especially women and girls.
In August 2017, the Myanmar authorities launched an unprecedented violence campaign against Rohingya after militants, allegedly from this minority Muslim group, carried out attacks on police posts in the country's north-western state of Rakhine.
