Bangladesh has decided to create a database of Rohingyas by collecting biometric details from the hundreds of thousands arriving through various points of its southeast border.
Khaled Mahmud, Additional District Magistrate of Cox's Bazaar, said the biometric database is part of an initiative to shelter them in one place.
With shelter capacity shrinking, the Rohingyas have been squatting beside roads and other open spaces.
"They will be given temporary shelter," said Kazi Abdur Rahman, additional deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar. The Rohingyas would be fingerprinted and confined to the camp so that they did not mix with the locals, he added.
According to UNHCR, an estimated 270,000 Rohingyas have so far sought safety in Bangladesh.
The UN agency has sought an urgent action to address the root causes of the recent surge in vio
lence, so that Rohingyas are no longer compelled to flee and can eventually return home in safety and dignity.
"We remain concerned by continuing reports of civilians dying as they try to flee to safety," said UNHCR spokesperson Duniya Aslam Khan at a press briefing in Geneva on Friday.
The spokesperson said, "UNHCR and our partners are working to provide protection and life-saving support to the new arrivals in Kutupalang and Nayapara camps. We continue to identify the most vulnerable refugees, such as unaccompanied children, women, the elderly and disabled, in need of shelter, food, water and healthcare. We are calling for the registration of all refugees upon arrival, in order to ensure their protection and access to essential services".
At least 300 boats arrived in Cox's Bazar on Wednesday, IOM said. Bangladesh plans to go ahead with work to develop an island in the Bay of Bengal to temporarily house tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in neighbouring Myanmar, officials say.
Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have so far recovered more than 100 bodies of Rohingyas as the boats with them on board capsized in the Naf River. Around 1,000 people, injured in Myanmar military action, are now undergoing treatment at hospitals in Bangladesh.
The Rohingyas are a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar who are facing discrimination and extreme poverty for decades.
They have not been allowed to exercise their basic rights including the freedom to move, right to education, work and other social, civil and political rights. The Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar are now stateless refugees, making them even more vulnerable and adding more challenges to the search for solutions.
While most of Rohingya refugees arrive on foot, mostly walking through the jungle and mountains for several days, thousands are braving long and risky voyages across the Bay of Bengal. They wait on the Myanmar border for fishing boats to take them to Teknaf in Bangladesh.
