Bangladesh to build largest refugee camp for Rohingya Muslims

DHAKA - 6 Oct 2017 : Bangladesh authorities announced a plan to build one of the world’s biggest refugee camps to house all the 800,000-plus Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Myanmar.

Minister of Disaster Management and Relief, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury said that the mega camp will be established near the border town of Cox’s Bazar through expanding a refugee camp at Kutupalongto to accommodate the Rohingya Muslims, Russia Today channel reported.

Chowdhury noted that all the Rohingya would be moved from 23 camps along the border and other makeshift camps around Cox’s Bazar to the new zone.

Chowdhury added that families were already moving to the new site known as the Kutupalong extension.

Bangladesh has allocated 790 hectares of land next to the existing Kutupalong camp in September for the new Rohingya arrivals. But as the number of newcomers has exceeded 500,000, adding to 300,000 already in Bangladesh, another 400 hectares has been set aside for the new camp.