Mad dash takes toll on children
Media: The Independent
Original URL: Mad dash takes toll on children
E-paper URL: Mad dash takes toll on children
The scuffle for relief materials is taking a heavy toll on Rohingya children and teenagers. Such is the mad scramble for the paltry relief that many of them are ending up in hospitals with severe wounds. Take 13-year-old Anwarul Islam, for instance. Doctors had to amputate two toes on his right foot after a relief truck ran over them.
The incident happened in front of the Balikhali makeshift Rohingya camp on September 16 when a relief truck was distributing materials among the refugees who had just arrived from Myanmar. Anwarul ran in the hope of getting something for his starving family. He grabbed a packet of relief but some other refugees pushed him down and snatched his packet. At that time, the truck started moving and Anwarul’s right leg went under the wheels.
“Some people punched me when I took a packet. They snatched it from me. Suddenly, my leg went under the truck, which was moving slowly. I lost consciousness and later woke up in hospital,” narrated Anwarul.
“After coming here, my struggle was to find shelter, food, and clothing for my seven-member family. But now, we are fighting to save my son’s life. I am spending my days in the hospital with my son, while my family is living in the open,” said his father Nabi Hossain.
Many Rohingya children like Anwarul are undergoing treatment in different hospitals in Cox’s Bazar after meeting with accidents while taking relief. At Cox’s Bazar Digital Hospital, a private hospital, this correspondent found 10 Rohingyas undergoing treatment. Five of them were children wounded while taking relief.
Hamid Hossain was seen tending to his son Shafiqur Hossain, 10, at the hospital. They have been there for 15 days already.
“We took shelter at the Thangkhali camp. When a relief vehicle came, my son ran to grab something. But another vehicle hit him and he was injured in the left leg. I don’t know when he will recover,” said Hamid, who escaped from Maungdaw. Rokeya, 7, is undergoing treatment at the same hospital for the last 14 days. She, too, was injured in the right leg while scrambling for relief. A vehicle hit her.
Her mother said, “We fled from Komar Khali in Maungdaw. A relief vehicle hit her when she was trying to grab some clothes that were being thrown from a truck at Lambabeel in Teknaf.”
The local administration said the accidents were taking place because the refugees were making a mad dash for the relief vehicles and scuffling to grab something.
On September 17, two children and a woman were killed in a stampede at Balukhali in Cox’s Bazar when clothes were being distributed from a truck.
However, the district administration does not know the number of people who have been injured so far during relief distribution. Many people are distributing relief from private sources on Teknaf Road without following any rules.
Moreover, it is difficult for the local administration to handle such a huge number of refugees. From yesterday, the Bangladesh Army started helping with the relief distribution to bring some discipline into the process.
