A fire broke out in the early morning hours of Friday morning in southern Bangladesh at a Rohingya refugee camp. At least three were killed and several others were injured in the fire, which was the second in less than two weeks. This fire occurred at the Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh, and this specific camp houses more that 600,000 thousand Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. Luckily the blaze was quickly controlled and extinguished, as it could have turned catastrophic due to the amount of flammable bamboo located near the camp. However, over 20 shops located in a market within the camp were destroyed. With multiple serious other fires occurring this year, attention is being drawn to the questionable safety conditions in Rohingya refugee camps.
There have historically been clashes in Myanmar due to religious differences between the Buddhist majority and Muslim minority, the Rohingya. After an intense crackdown by Myanmar’s military in 2017, over one million Rohingya fled the country. They’re denied even the most basic rights there, such as citizenship, causing issues regarding what to do with Rohingya refugees as most refuse to return to Myanmar. This causes problems for countries housing these refugees such as Bangladesh as they have a large influx in their population in a short period of time. Housing refugees often causes political divisions as well. Having such a large number of people condensed in these camps causes safety problems also, shown by the outbreaks of fires in Rohingya refugee camps. This puts more pressure on Bangladesh to figure out what to do with the Rohingya.
This is where international powers come into play through intergovernmental organizations, as groups such as the United Nations tend to get involved in situations where there’s humanitarian risk, such as this one. However politics and relationships between countries play a big part in this, so it’s unlikely the UN would actually get involved unless the situation worsens drastically. This is through multi-faceted analysis, where the UN must assess the situation by looking at a variety of factors before deciding to intervene or not. Bangladesh is also put in a tricky situation as it goes against human morals to send the Rohingya back to a country where they’re oppressed.