Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoGENEVA / ROHINGYA REFUGEES
Download
There is no media available to download.
Share
STORY: GENEVA / ROHINGYA REFUGEES
TRT: 2:02
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 8 SEPTEMBER 2017 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior, Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Duniya Aslam Khan, UNHCR:
"Amid a dramatic increase in the number of refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar’s Northern Rakhine state, we are calling for urgent action to address the root causes of the recent surge in violence, so that people are no longer compelled to flee and can eventually return home in safety and dignity.”
4. Med shot, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Duniya Aslam Khan, UNHCR spokesperson:
"The limited shelter capacity is already exhausted. Refugees are now squatting in makeshift shelters that have mushroomed along the road and on available land in Teknaf and Ukhiya."
6. Med shot, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Duniya Aslam Khan, UNHCR spokesperson:
"The two refugee camps in Bangladesh – Kutupalong and Nayapara [in Cox’s Bazar in south-east Bangladesh] – that were previously home to 34,000 Rohingya refugees before this new influx – are now bursting at the seams. The population has more than doubled in two weeks, totaling more than 70,000. There is an urgent need for more land and shelters."
8. Wide shot, journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Marixie Mercado, UNICEF:
"The sheer numbers of people who are fleeing Myanmar is overwhelming and about 80 percent are women and children.”
10. Med shot, panel
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Marixie Mercado, UNICEF:
“There’s an acute shortage of pretty much everything: shelter, food, water, medicine, nutrition supplies to treat malnourished kids, and relief workers.”
12. Close up, journalist
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, UN OCHA:
“The number of people rushing into Bangladesh, more than doubling in the span of a few days- this clearly is a rapidly deteriorating crisis. The humanitarian needs are rising and as we hear, the resources to respond, are dwindling and drying up.”
14. Close up, Camera
15. Close up, journalist
As the number of refugees seeking shelter in Bangladesh from neighbouring Myanmar has nearly doubled in the last few days, UN humanitarian agencies are warning that shelters are "bursting at the seams" and that aid workers are overwhelmed by the scale of the emergency.
Speaking today (8 Sep) to reporters in Geneva, Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN's Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said “this clearly is a rapidly deteriorating crisis, the humanitarian needs are rising and the resources to respond are dwindling and drying up.”
There are now a total estimated 270,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, with large numbers having crossed since the violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state spiked on 25 August.
"The two refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar in south-east Bangladesh – that were previously home to 34,000 Rohingya refugees before this new influx – are now bursting at the seams. The population has more than doubled in two weeks, totaling more than 70,000. There is an urgent need for more land and shelters, " said Duniya Aslam Khan, a spokesperson for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
Ninety thousand of these refugees are estimated to be sheltered by host communities, with the remainder in increasingly crowded refugee camps, according to the International Organization on Migration (IOM), which announced that it has just allocated one million U.S, dollars for shelter needs in the Cox's Bazar area.
That money is in addition to 7 million U.S. dollars are that are being provided by the international community through the UN's Central Emergency Response (CERF), which aims to deliver funding quickly to humanitarian responders and kick-start life-saving action in crises.
Many of the refugees fleeing the violence in Rakhine are women and children, according to UNICEF: "The sheer numbers of people who are fleeing Myanmar is overwhelming and about 80 percent are women and children,” said Marixie Mercado, the UNICEF spokesperson in Geneva.
“There’s an acute shortage of pretty much everything," Mercado said. "Shelter, food, water, medicine, nutrition supplies to treat malnourished kids, and relief workers.”
In addition to thousands of people crossing the border on foot, 300 boats carrying refugees arrived yesterday, said IOM spokesman Leonard Doyle.
"Amid a dramatic increase in the number of refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar’s Northern Rakhine state, we are calling for urgent action to address the root causes of the recent surge in violence, so that people are no longer compelled to flee and can eventually return home in safety and dignity, " said Duniya Aslam Khan, a spokesperson for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
"The limited shelter capacity is already exhausted. Refugees are now squatting in makeshift shelters that have mushroomed along the road and on available land in Teknaf and Ukhiya," she added.
The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar who have faced discrimination and extreme poverty for decades. They have not been allowed to exercise their basic rights including the freedom to move, right to education, work and other social, civil and political rights, according to UNHCR, which says that the Rohingya fleeing Myanmar are now stateless refugees who are therefore even more vulnerable.
