Rohingya seek Bangladesh hospital aid

With Rohingya refugees still streaming across the swampy border into Bangladesh, one hospital was struggling Monday to treat dozens of men who had arrived with broken bones, bullet wounds and horrific stories of death.

Already, some 73,000 Rohingya Muslims have entered Bangladesh in fleeing violence in western Myanmar, which erupted Aug. 25. The refugees have filled three existing refugee camps set up in the 1990s, aid workers say. Thousands more were sheltering wherever they could find space.

"We have heard reports of people cordoned off in the area" near the border, said UNHCR spokeswoman Vivian Tan. "We have also heard reports that at some border points, controls have been relaxed."

UNHCR field agents had yet to gain access to border areas to fully assess the situation, but aid workers said many refugees needed medical attention for respiratory diseases, infections and malnutrition.

On Monday, a clutch of refugees carrying nothing but bed sheets and personal documents in plastic bags were squatting in the open behind the Cox's Bazar Sadar Hospital, about two hours from the nearest border point.

Inside, the hospital said it had treated 31 men who arrived "distressed and afraid" with broken bones and bullet wounds, mostly to their limbs, according to the resident medical officer Dr. Shaheen Abdur Rahman Choudhury.

"They were fired upon; their homes were set on fire; they were forced to run. These are the common descriptions they give us," Choudhury said.

The hospital, already "hugely overburdened," was expecting to receive many more wounded refugees," he said. "What we are seeing is the tip of the iceberg."

Bangladesh police say dozens of Rohingya have died attempting to cross the river separating the two countries.

Source: Khaleej Times