At Least 15 Dead, Hundreds Missing After Fire At Rohingya Refugee Camp

At least 15 people have died and hundreds have gone missing after a devastating fire ripped through a refugee camp in Bangladesh, officials said Tuesday.

The fire that broke out Monday at a Rohingya refugee camp in southern Bangladesh has left around 45,000 people displaced and more than 550 people injured.

The fire started at around 3 p.m. (5 a.m. ET) at the world’s largest refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar that houses more than 87,000 Rohingya refugees originally from Myanmar. It is estimated that around 66% of the population in the camp has been affected, according to a report by UN News.

Two major hospitals, including International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) largest health center, were destroyed in the fire.

More than 400 people have been reported missing and many children have been separated from their families.

“It is massive, it is devastating,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Johannes Van der Klaauw in a virtual briefing from Bangladesh. “We still have 400 people unaccounted for, maybe somewhere in the rubble,” he added, reported news outlet Reuters.

The authorities in Bangladesh have so far confirmed 11 deaths and the emergency and aid workers are searching through the debris for further victims.

“Everything has gone. Thousands are without homes,” Aman Ullah, a Rohingya refugee from the camp, told Reuters. “The fire was brought under control after six hours but some parts of the camp could be seen smoking all night long,” he added.

Several people died after being trapped by the barbed fence around the camp, which hindered the rescue operations. “Many children are missing, and some were unable to flee because of barbed wire set up in the camps,” Refugees International, a humanitarian organization, said in a statement.

“We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life in the fires that struck Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar yesterday. According to provisional reports, 15 refugees have died in the fire. Another 400 are still missing and 560 are injured,” Gillian Triggs, Assistant High Commissioner for protection at UNHCR, tweeted.

Mohammad Mohsin, secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, visited the camp and confirmed that around 40,000 huts in the camp were burned down. “A seven-member committee has been formed to investigate the matter,” Mohsin said. The cause of the fire is still unknown but Bangladeshi officials have started investigating the cause of the blaze.

The vast majority of the refugee population fled Myanmar in 2017 and sought shelter in the camps amid the military crackdown on the Rohingya.