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$ 13.5m UNHCR grant : 5 more camps soon

Repatriation talks uncertain

By Farid Hossain
The government has decided to open Ove more camps to deal with the growing influx of Rohingya refugees amidst doubts that this Week's repatriation talks between Bangladesh and Myanmar may not take place.
An average of 300 refugees are arriving everyday swelling the official number to 2 lakh 74 thousand. The unofficial estimate has been put at more than 3 lakh.
Officials at Cox's Bazar reached by telephone said about 88.000 refugees arc now living in the rugged Cox's Bazar-Teknaf region without any proper shelter. The new camps that will raise the number of shelters to 18 arc designed to provide shelter 10 at least 70,000 more refugees.
Meanwhile, the prospects of repatriation under the April 28 agreement have become slimmer as Myanmar remains silent about another round of talks planned at Teknaf this week.
"We have got no response from Myanmar side about the meeting. The process of repatriation seems to have plunged into a new uncertainly,'' said a relief official al Cox's Bazar.
The repatriation due to begin from May 15 has already been postponed twice for lack of preparations and more importantly the refugees' reluctance to return home until human rights situation improves in Burma.
The refugees insist that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees must be involved into the process to oversee their repatriation and rehabilitation. Myanmar has rejected the Idea.
The UNHCR has geared up its relief operation in cooperation with Bangladesh government.
The Dhaka office of UNHCR said on Tuesday that it had raised 13.9 million dollars in response to an appeal for 27.5 million dollars made in last March by UNHCR chief Sadako
Ogata.
The UNHCR officially granted the package of aid (13.5 million dollars) to Bangladesh under an agreement signed In Dhaka on Tuesday. The money will be used for creeling shelters and providing waler, sanitation, health and nutritional facilities for the refu gees. Much of the aid has already been disbursed to Bangladesh since last March, when the UNHCR got involved into the refugee situation in response to Dhaka's call [or international help.
The agreement which brings the UNHCR assistance under formal coverage was signed by UNHCR Bangladesh Mission chief Darioush Bayan-dor and relief secretary M A Hakim.
Under the agreement the UNHCR will provide 8.4 million dollars directly to the gov emment through the Relief Ministry to fund supply of wa ter, sanitation, health, nutri
lion, shelter and other Infrastructures. forestry and transport. The remaining 5.2 million dollars will be used by UNHCR for procuring interna tionally materials for shelter and water supply.
The Rohingya refugees have started fleeing into Bangladesh since March last year tc escape persecution by Myanmar soldiers. Bangladesh says it is unable to look after their welfare for long because of resource constraints.