A massive fire in the Rohingya refugee camps on the Bangladesh/Myanmar border has forced tens of thousands to flee their makeshift homes.

The fire on Monday 22 March left an estimated 50,000 homeless as the flames gutted hundreds of shelters made of bamboo and tarp. At least 400 people were initially listed as missing, and some reports say 15 are dead, including two children. News reports have captured the sound of screaming mothers searching the ruins for their children.

The psychic shock would be difficult to imagine under any circumstances. But these are people who have fled across the border, seeking safety, as their ancestral villages were being burnt to the ground. There are numerous eyewitness accounts of troops throwing the families’ babies into the flames.

Compassion and Generosity

We ask you, friends and supporters of the Buddhist Humanitarian Project, to consider the following efforts you can make in the immediate aftermath of this disaster. Please see below for details on each.

• Please hold the Rohingya people in your thoughts, prayers and compassion practices.
• There are appeals from humanitarian and disaster relief organizations. Please practice generosity – even in the midst of the difficult times we are facing in many other ways – to help the Rohingya people. They have escaped from the fires of genocidal attacks in their homeland and now face the devastation of their shelters, the loss of their meager belongings and the death of their people.

Holding the Rohingya in your practice

Most of you are likely to be Buddhist practitioners. You will be familiar with various practices that arouse and express compassion, including The Four Immeasurables, Tonglen, and visualizations associated with the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of compassion. Please open your hearts to the Rohingya. Many are without hope, overwhelmed by fear and loss, reliving the horrors from which they fled three years ago.

Among the Rohingya people are adherents of different faiths, including Islam, Christianity and Hinduism. You are invited to use your practice however you wish to transcend these differences. For example, you may be familiar with a prayer or phrase from one of these faith traditions, and find a way to incorporate that in your thoughts and practice. In this way we reach out with respect for these other traditions and emphasize our common humanity.

Supporting the emergency efforts

You can go online to find the latest emergency efforts and appeals launched to provide
desperately needed shelter, food, sanitation and medical help for the victims of the fire.
Some of the organizations we trust include:

BRAC is one of the world’s leading nonprofit organizations. They have longstanding relationships in Bangladesh and Myanmar, where they are providing both short-term refugee support as well as long-term community development. In the past year, they have supported more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Click here to donate to their Rohingya support fund. Clear View Project has been working closely with BRAC for the last three years.

Children on the Edge, a charity based in the United Kingdom, focuses on protecting and supporting children in the refugee camps. Children on the Edge has been working in Rohingya refugee camps for over seven years. Click here for a direct link to their donation page.

International Campaign for the Rohingya is an advocacy group based in Washington, DC. Building a network of Rohingya people and supportive allies, the campaign is focused on Rohingya advocacy at the levels of international organizations, governments, corporations, and civil society. The group is currently fundraising to support democracy and human rights in Myanmar — click here to donate.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) provides protection and support to refugees around the world. Established in 1950, the UNHCR has received two Nobel Peace Prizes for their work. You can donate to support their aid work with Rohingya refugees.

Global Giving is a platform that re-distributes donations to local, credible organizations. Global Giving is registered for tax deductions in the United States and England. Click here to donate to their Rohingya fund.

News

Most major news organizations are reporting on the fire in the camps. Earliest reports indicate:

The cause of Monday’s fire is still under investigation. An early report from BRAC suggested an exploding gas cylinder may have been responsible. Rohingya households receive cylinders of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking fuel as part of their aid supplies.

Aid groups say the fire destroyed a number of facilities, including several health clinics, food distribution centres, and a market. The UN’s migration agency, IOM, said its largest health clinic in the camp was “completely destroyed.” The World Food Programme said two of its nutrition centres and a food distribution site were “burnt to the ground.”

The fire left tens of thousands homeless overnight. Some have taken shelter with friends or family in neighbouring camps, and aid groups have opened up other facilities to house others.

(Reporting from The New Humanitarian news service)

Sanjeev Kafley, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society’s delegation head in Bangladesh, said more than 17,000 shelters had been destroyed and tens of thousands of people displaced.

More than a thousand Red Cross staff and volunteers worked with fire services to extinguish the blaze, spread over four sections of the camp containing roughly 124,000 people, he said. That represents around one-tenth of an estimated 1 million Rohingya refugees in the area, Kafley said.

“I have been in Cox’s Bazar for three-and-a-half years and have never seen such a fire,” he told Reuters. “These people have been displaced two times. For many, there is nothing left.”

(Reporting from Reuters news agency)