Turkish NGO aims to build 2,000 houses for Rohingya

By Ethem Geylan

ISTANBUL

A Turkey-based aid agency is aiming to build a total of 2,000 houses as part of a housing project designed for Rohingya Muslims, a statement said.

“We are here [in Bangladesh] for our Rohingya brothers, who are the world’s most persecuted people,” Mehmet Cengiz, the head of Deniz Feneri Association, said in a statement.

Since Aug. 25, 650,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN.

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

Cengiz, together with the association’s deputy head Turan Yalcin and International Relations Coordinator Yavuz Inan, is at Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh to review the agency’s ongoing housing project.

“We’ve made a 1,000-house project for our brothers,” Cengiz said, referring to the ongoing construction project.

Thanking donors for their support, the head of the association said: “With the first stage, we will hopefully accommodate 1,000 families to 1,000 houses. Our target is [to build] 2,000 houses."

Meanwhile, Inan said the association would continue to help Rohingya refugees at the camps in Cox's Bazar and Kutupalong until the crisis ends.

According to Doctors Without Borders, at least 9,000 Rohingya were killed in Rakhine state from Aug. 25 to Sept. 24.

In a report published on Dec. 12, the global humanitarian organization said that the deaths of 71.7 percent or 6,700 Rohingya were caused by violence. They include 730 children below the age of 5.

The UN has documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.

Turkey has been at the forefront of providing aid to Rohingya refugees and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has raised the issue at the UN.