Refugee camp fire in Bangladesh leaves thousands of Muslims from Myanmar homeless

Thousands of refugees were left homeless on Sunday after a massive fire ripped through a packed camp for Rohingya Muslims in southern Bangladesh, a fire official and the United Nations said.

Imdadul Haq, a fire service official, said there were no reports of casualties at Balukhali camp in Cox’s Bazar district.

UNHCR in Bangladesh said in a tweet that Rohingya refugee volunteers responded to the fire, with the agency and its partners providing assistance. It gave no further details.

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Rohingya refugees search for their belongings after a massive fire broke out at the Balukhali camp in Bangladesh, March 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Hossain Opu)

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More than one million Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh over several decades, including some 740,000 who crossed the border in August 2017, when Myanmar’s military launched a brutal crackdown.

Things have worsened in Myanmar since a military takeover in 2021 and efforts to repatriate refugees have failed.

Last year, the United States said the persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar amounted to genocide after US officials confirmed mass atrocities against civilians by the military in a systematic campaign against the ethnic minority. Muslim Rohingya face widespread discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where most are denied citizenship and many other rights.