Turkish charity builds 1,600 homes for Rohingya

A Turkish nongovernmental organization (NGO) has built neighborhoods with at least 1,500 bamboo houses for Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district.

Hamit Kunt, coordinator at the Deniz Feneri Association in the capital Ankara, told Anadolu Agency (AA) yesterday that they finished the construction of 1,600 houses as well as 700 water wells and over 10 masjids (mosques) in three neighborhoods for Rohingya refugees.

The association set up the neighborhoods to improve the conditions of the Rohingya. Kunt said there are nearly 3 million Rohingya Muslims around the world and half of the figure lives in Cox's Bazar camps.

Kunt said the Turkish NGO has been continuously helping the Rohingya refugees in the fields of nutrition, water, education, accommodation and worship.

Bamboo was chosen as the raw material for the houses for its durability, and each house was constructed on a 20 square meters (215 square feet), he said. With their new homes, Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar will be able to protect themselves from fierce winter conditions as heavy rainfall and storms usually dominate Bangladesh during the monsoon season. Separately, the association distributed meat to 1,350 families in the camp as well as food packages and blankets.

The Rohingya, described by the U.N. as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012. According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017.