Unifeed
GENEVA / COX’S BAZAR
STORY: GENEVA / COX’S BAZAR
TRT: 2:00
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 13 SEPTEMBER 2019 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior, flag alley, Palais des Nations, United Nations Geneva
2. Wide shot, Press room, journalists, TV crews
3. Med shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Verhoosel, spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP):
“The flooding of this week was not one of those flooding that we often have and that we are often talking to you about. That was something much bigger.”
5. Med shot, hands typing on laptops
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Verhoosel, spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP): “The families lost everything because all that was in the house was basically washed away; what they use as a bed or what they use to cook, or everything was basically lost. They have nothing to cook, they have nothing to sleep, most of the clothes have been lost. Basically, the little things that they’ve rebuilt since they arrived in the camp was lost in one night of rain.”
7. Close up, journalist
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Verhoosel, spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP): “It cost WFP $16 million every month to feed almost 900,000 refugees; without continued support from the international community, their situation will be rapidly deteriorated.”
9. Close up, journalists, profile
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR): “The Government of Bangladesh does have an overall responsibility for ensuring security and safety of the Rohingya who are sheltered in Cox’s Bazar. Given the humanitarian nature of the Rohingya refugee settlements, we would recommend the adoption of security measures that do not impact upon the ability of refugees to access basic services and rights and live safely.”
11. Med shot, journalists
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR): “Technology has been an important way for the refugees to communicate with family and friends and humanitarian agencies to disseminate and access information, including in emergency situations such as was the recent heavy monsoon rains and downpours.”
13. Close up, journalist
14. Med shot, podium
15. Close up, handwriting on press release
Unusually heavy monsoon rains have washed away homes and shelters in refugee camps in southern Bangladesh creating havoc, the World Food Programme (WFP) said today (13 Sep) in a call for greater support from the international community.
According to WFP, 16,000 flood victims had received food assistance in just 24 hours - more than all those reached since the monsoon season began in June.
At a regular briefing in Geneva, WFP spokesperson Hervé Verhoosel said, “the flooding of this week was not one of those flooding that we often have and that we are often talking to you about; (it) was something much bigger.”
The area of Teknaf has been worst affected after seeing record rainfall this week, WFP said in a statement.
Citing information from colleagues in Cox’s Bazar – a series of camps that have been home to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees since they fled a military operation led by the Myanmar military in the summer of 2017 – Verhoosel noted that families had lost everything.
In addition to refugees, host communities have also been badly affected, with more than 800 people temporarily displaced by flooding receiving food assistance.
Verhoosel said, “all that was in the house was basically washed away; what they use as a bed or what they use to cook, or everything was basically lost.”
He continued, “they have nothing to cook, they have nothing to sleep, most of the clothes have been lost. Basically, the little things that they’ve rebuilt since they arrived in the camp was lost in one night of rain.”
In an appeal for funding, the WFP official explained that it costs $16 million every month to feed almost 900,000 refugees in Cox’s Bazar.
Without the continued support of the international community, their situation could deteriorate rapidly, he added, before noting that WFP has food stocks prepositioned at strategic locations around the camps which can be distributed quickly.
In a related development, and in response to journalists’ questions about reported telecommunications restrictions in Cox’s Bazar following protests there, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) insisted that those seeking shelter should not be prevented from communicating with relatives elsewhere.
UNCHR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic said, “the Government of Bangladesh does have an overall responsibility for ensuring security and safety of the Rohingya who are sheltered in Cox’s Bazar.” Mahecic added, “given the humanitarian nature of the Rohingya refugee settlements, we would recommend the adoption of security measures that do not impact upon the ability of refugees to access basic services and rights and live safely.”
Highlighting how useful technology is for refugees wishing to communicate with “family and friends and humanitarian agencies”, Mahecic insisted that this was especially the case in emergency situations, like the one happening now.
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