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GENEVA / BANGLADESH UPDATE
STORY: GENEVA / BANGLADESH UPDATE
TRT: 02:15
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 22 SEPTEMBER 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / RECENT
RECENT, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior, Palais des Nations
22 SEPTEMBER 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrej Mahecic, Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR):
“As the number of Rohingya refugees edges towards half a million, we are stepping up delivery of life saving aid to desperate people camped out near the two official camps near south eastern Bangladesh. At the request of the Bangladeshi authorities, we are speeding up the distribution of plastic sheeting to get as many people as possible under at least minimal protection from monsoon rains and winds.”
4. Close up, journalist
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrej Mahecic, Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR): “Refugee volunteers and contractors are helping newly arrived refugees to move into emergency shelter, but it is vital that our site planners have the opportunity to help lay out the new Kutupalong extension in an orderly way to adequately provide for sanitation and to make sure structures are erected on higher ground not prone to flooding.”
6. Wide shot, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Fadela Chaib, Spokesperson of the World Health Organisation (WHO): “Water and sanitation, number one, is a major challenge and increases the risk for many vector and water borne diseases. The risk of cholera cannot be ruled out, with cholera being endemic in Bangladesh.”
8. Close up, journalist
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrej Mahecic, Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR):
“The camps are overpopulated at this stage, they are bursting at the seams and yes there are risks of diseases. That is why the extension is so crucial to be able to release some of the pressure in the camps and to make sure that the new site is also organised in such a way that the sanitation and clean water can be there.”
10. Med shot, journalists
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrej Mahecic, Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR): “We also believe that the international community, and the countries in the region, could certainly focus the efforts on actually addressing the conflict and the peace process as well as addressing the root causes that would ultimately address also the recent surge in violence, so that people are no longer compelled to flee and that they can ultimately return in safety and dignity.”
12. Wide shot, journalists
According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), refugee camps in Bangladesh are “bursting at the seams” as the number of Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar "edges toward half a million.”
Current UN estimates put the number of displaced people since 25 August at 429,000.
Humanitarian aid agencies worry that diseases will spread with the arrival of the fast approaching monsoon rains and winds, despite the recent introduction of an extension camp at Kutupalong, in Bangladesh.
UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic told reporters today in Geneva that as the number of Rohingya refugees edges towards half a million, the agency is “stepping up delivery of life saving aid to desperate people camped out near the two official camps near south eastern Bangladesh.”
Mahecic added that “at the request of the Bangladeshi authorities, we are speeding up the distribution of plastic sheeting to get as many people as possible under at least minimal protection from monsoon rains and winds.”
Many of the estimated 420,000 refugees who have arrived in Bangladesh since August have joined those already living in the crowded official camps of Kutupalong and Nayapara, or have found refuge living in schools and other public buildings that have been converted into communal shelters.
Mahecic said “the camps are overpopulated at this stage, they are bursting at the seams and yes there are risks of diseases.”
He said “that is why the extension is so crucial to be able to release some of the pressure in the camps and to make sure that the new site is also organised in such a way that the sanitation and clean water can be there.”
UNHCR site planners have been deployed to help organise the Kutupalong extension, a 2,000-acre site next to Kutupalong camp that the authorities have allocated to new arrivals.
Mahecic said “refugee volunteers and contractors are helping newly arrived refugees to move into emergency shelter.” He added that “it is vital that our site planners have the opportunity to help lay out the new Kutupalong extension in an orderly way to adequately provide for sanitation and to make sure structures are erected on higher ground not prone to flooding.”
The United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO) has also stressed the priority of moving refugees in the crowded or informal settlements into the Kutupalong extension to reduce the risks of diseases, especially to avoid a possible Cholera outbreak.
WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib said “water and sanitation, number one, is a major challenge and increases the risk for many vector and water borne diseases. The risk of cholera cannot be ruled out, with cholera being endemic in Bangladesh.”
As of tomorrow, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Fillipo Grandi, will be in Bangladesh to get a first-hand grasp of the scale of the crisis, meet refugees, and see UNHCR’s continued ramping up of its response to the crisis.
Mahecic said “we also believe that the international community, and the countries in the region, could certainly focus the efforts on actually addressing the conflict and the peace process." He highlighted the importance of “addressing the root causes that would ultimately address also the recent surge in violence, so that people are no longer compelled to flee and that they can ultimately return in safety and dignity.”
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