Bangladesh – The British Government, in collaboration with IOM, the UN Migration Agency, has organized a major airlift of relief items to help some of the estimated 507,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled to Bangladesh in the past month to escape violence in neighbouring Myanmar.

The aid, flown into the southern Bangladeshi city of Chittagong by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) on September 28 and 29, included 20,000 blankets, 10,500 sleeping mats, and 10,000 shelter kits. Each shelter kit contains two tarpaulins and the rope necessary to fix them.

The airlift, which will improve the lives of thousands of families, will target people who have been living in spontaneous settlements on roadsides or muddy fields around the Kutupalong and Balukhali Makeshift Settlements since fleeing Myanmar’s North Rakhine State.

Convoys of IOM trucks moved the aid from Chittagong airport to one of IOM’s partner warehouses in the same city for processing and it is now being distributed by IOM and local NGO partners to the newly arrived refugees. On the first day of the distribution, a total 1,000 households will be assisted in Balukhali, each receiving the shelter kit, two blankets and a sleeping mat.

“Many thousands of people are living in the open. We need to provide them with shelter immediately,” said Mohammed Abdiker, IOM Director of Operations and Emergencies. “This airlift will supply 10,000 families – 50,000 people – with potentially life-saving shelter, mats and bedding to protect them during the monsoon season’s torrential wind and rain. We are greatly appreciative that the UK government, which has partnered with IOM in Bangladesh, Iraq and in other IOM missions, has again decided to work with us to help this extremely vulnerable population,” added Abdiker.

There are massive shelter and site management needs across Cox’s Bazar which reflect the scale of the crisis. IOM in coordination with the UK Government and other partners is working to urgently address these needs.

Of the estimated over 507,000 people, who have arrived in Bangladesh over the past month, an estimated 300,000 people are still in need of emergency shelter.

IOM has distributed 44,456 tarpaulins, with guy ropes to around 44,456 households since the start of the influx on 25 August. It has also distributed 4,152 blankets, 1,595 sleeping mats, 2,784 mattresses, and 1,411 core relief packages. The packages include clothing, mosquito nets, cooking sets, soap and blankets.

114,000 Bangladesh Taka (around USD 1,390) in cash has also been distributed to 57 households (BDT 2,000 or around USD 25 in cash per household) to help with shelter construction. Another 4,000 NFI kits and 6,000 bamboo poles are scheduled for delivery in the next two weeks.

IOM is coordinating the emergency response in Bangladesh through the Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG.) It is also leading the shelter and NFI sector, and the site management sector.

In August, ISCG agencies published a Preliminary Response Plan appealing for USD 77 million. As of 1 October, more than USD 36.4 million (47 per cent) has been received and approximately USD 40 million had been pledged by donors.

The UK Government has committed GBP 30 million of new funding to support those most affected by the crisis. Bilateral in-kind assistance has also been provided to Bangladesh by Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, India and Morocco.

Since the publication of the Preliminary Response Plan, the number of refugees has spiralled and the plan is now being revised to correspond with the increased humanitarian needs. The revised plan is expected to be launched later this week.

For more information, please contact:
Hala Jaber in Cox’s Bazar, Tel: +8801733335221, Email: hjaberbent@iom.int
Peppi Siddiq in Dhaka, Tel: +8801755568894, Email: pksiddiq@iom.int