Turkey to build 5,000 more homes for Rohingya

By Enes Duran

ANKARA

Turkey will build 5,000 more prefabricated homes for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, an increase from the previously promised 20,000 homes, Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag said on Tuesday.

“Turkey had promised to build 20,000 prefabricated homes for 100,000 people. We decided to increase this to 25,000, so we will be able to serve almost 125,000 people,” Recep Akdag said in a meeting with Bangladesh's Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury in Ankara.

Akday said Turkey would build two field hospitals and 10 medical centers in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar by the end of 2017.

"Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority [AFAD], the Turkish Red Crescent and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency [TIKA] are helping the Rohingya in Bangladesh. By the end of this year, we will build two field hospitals and 10 medical centers in Cox's Bazar where refugees are living,” Akdag said.

Akdag also said Turkey’s northwestern Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality would help provide drilling wells in cooperation with AFAD.

Chowdhury expressed his appreciation for Turkey’s help.

"Turkey is there wherever people are having trouble. Many Turkish people are now working with Bangladeshi officials to help almost one million Rakhine people.”

Since Aug. 25 about 621,000 Rohingya refugees have arrived in Cox’s Bazar, fleeing violence in Myanmar.

According to the UN, the total Rohingya refugee population in the area is now over 834,000.

They are fleeing a military crackdown in which security forces and Buddhist mobs have killed men, women and children, looted homes and torched Rohingya villages.

According to Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali, around 3,000 Rohingya have been killed in the crackdown.

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.

The UN documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings and disappearances committed by security personnel.

In a recent report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.