Preparations continue at Hla Hpoe Khaung transit camp for women and children

23 November 2018
Preparations continue at Hla Hpoe Khaung transit camp for women and children

Under the scorching sun, some buildings are lying calmly and silently in the barren plain.

These are at Hla Hpoe Khaung transit camp where the refugees repatriated from Bangladesh through Nga Khu Ra and Taung Pyo Letwe camps will be placed.

Each building has 8 rooms and up to six family members can stay in each room. Maungdaw District Administrator said that currently, they had prepared a playground for the children, clinic, and a recreation room run by the Social Welfare Department for women and girls.

“Though each room can accommodate up to six family members, we shall give them a room even if they have only 3 family members as this is a transit camp and just for short stay. We will give rooms to them in accordance with the nearest number of their family members. And also we will give four rations of rice, cooking oil, pulses and salt while they are staying in this transit camp. We will issue these rations for each month. Apart from that, according to our interim plan, we will give cash assistance of 1,000 kyats per person to buy other food supplies besides rations issued to them if they have no money when they arrive here. This is our plan and arrangement for them,” Maungdaw District administrator Soe Aung said.

District administrator added that the clinic in this transit camp was prepared for child delivery for pregnant women.

“We prepare for the women with the clinic which is ready for child delivery. The clinic has two wards, OPD and dispensary. It will also have one ambulance especially attached to it. It is for emergency and transferal cases to be transferred to Maungdaw hospital,” He said.

He also said that the Social Welfare Department had built a playground and a school for the children. Currently, two swings can be seen in this playground.

“When school going age children come to this transit camp, we will provide them with a school for the elementary level but not for middle and high school level. This elementary school will give them schooling in elementary level. You will see this school when you reach this camp. In this modular house school building, there will be five classrooms with 60 benches and also it will have a whiteboard. We will assign teachers up to assistant education officer level at this school for the refugee children,” he added.

Toilets, hand pumps and houses have been built,  while on the other side, there are container houses in the name of ‘China Aid’. Each house is equipped with two windows and electricity and it can accommodate up to four family members.

Hla Hpoe Khaung camp in-charge Soe Shwe Aung said on November 16 that they arranged the water supply, electricity and food for refugees.

Myanmar government said that everything was ready for the refugees but not a single person had arrived yet. As per the bilateral agreement between two countries, the first batch of over 2,000 refugees was due on November 15 but the Bangladesh government said that the first batch could go back to only in December.

Dil Mohammed, one of those who is living near the border close to Taungpyo camp, said, “We want our rights. We want to live in peace. There are over 5,000 refugees here and about 2,000 of them are children.”

According to the UN figures, about 700,000 refugees fled to Bangladesh but they did not disclose exact figures in how many male and female in these refugees. According to the Bangladesh government, about 70,000 pregnant women and mothers of infants who was just born are included in these refugees.