A spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency says some 589,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh since August 25.
At a news conference Friday, Farhan Haq told reporters that just over half of them are staying at a large site known as the Kutupalong Expansion, where aid partners are working to improve basic services, infrastructure and road access.
A conference is set for Monday to discuss the relief plan for the Rohingya crisis. It calls for $434 million to help 1.2 million refugees through February 2018.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday that nearly 7,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have been admitted to Bangladesh after spending as much as four days stranded near the border. Thousands more Rohingya are believed to still be in Myanmar but heading for the border.
The UNICEF children’s agency said Friday that more than 320,000 Rohingya refugee children are threatened by desperate living conditions and waterborne diseases. In a report, the agency said the essential needs of many children are not being met.
The report also called for UNICEF to be allowed access to Rohingya children who are still in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and affected by the violence there. Despite an expanding international aid effort led by the government of Bangladesh, UNICEF says the children’s needs are not being met.
The refugees who had been stranded near the border were moved by the Bangladeshi military recently to several makeshift settlements, where they are being given food, water, medical checks and temporary shelter.
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