Turkey’s TIKA donates personal care items for Rohingya

DHAKA, Bangladesh

The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), a state-run aid body, donated 5,000 personal care packages for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh’s camps.

The distribution run through Wednesday starting on Saturday in various camps set up in the southern Cox’s Bazar district, TIKA’s Dhaka office said in a statement on Wednesday.

“COVID-19 affects Rohingya refugees just as it affects the whole world. TIKA has also not forgotten the Rohingya refugees and has distributed cleaning supplies to help them fight the coronavirus,” said Ismail Gundogdu, the agency's Bangladesh coordinator.

The package included products such as face mask, soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, toothpaste, he said.

Mentioning the distressed living condition and helplessness of the persecuted group in Bangladesh’s crammed makeshift camps, he said “TIKA will continue to help the oppressed Rohingya.”

“The TIKA has been providing intensive humanitarian assistance to Rohingya refugees since the crisis began in 2017. From 2017 to 219, it distributed hot meals to approximately 25, 000 people daily,” Gundogdu told Anadolu Agency.

- Persecuted people

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017, pushing the number of persecuted people in Bangladesh above 1.2 million.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

More than 34,000 Rohingya were also thrown into fires, while over 114,000 others were beaten, said the OIDA report, titled Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience.

As many as 18,000 Rohingya women and girls were raped by Myanmar’s army and police and over 115,000 Rohingya homes burned down while 113,000 others vandalized, it added.