Rohingya refugee kids face ‘hell on earth’, says Unicef

Geneva: Unicef says the children who make up most of the nearly 600,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Myanmar are seeing a “hell on earth” in overcrowded, muddy and squalid refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.

The UN children's agency has issued a report that documents the plight of children who account for 58 percent of the refugees who have poured into Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, over the last eight weeks. Report author Simon Ingram says about one in five children in the area are “acutely malnourished.”

The report comes ahead of a donor conference Monday in Geneva to drum up international funding for the Rohingya. “Many Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh have witnessed atrocities in Myanmar no child should ever see, and all have suffered tremendous loss,” Unicef executive director Anthony Lake said.

The refugees need clean water, food, sanitation, shelter and vaccines to help head off a possible outbreak of cholera.

Mr Ingram also warned of threats posed by human traffickers and others who might exploit children in the refugee areas.

“These children feel so abandoned, so completely remote, and without means of finding support or help. It's no surprise that they must truly see this place as a hell on earth,” Mr Ingram said.