Rohingya refugees, living in squalid camps in southeastern Bangladesh, have donated winter clothes to survivors of the devastating earthquake in Türkiye, said a Rohingya community leader on Wednesday.
Some 700 blankets and 200 jackets were donated to the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency's (TIKA) office in Dhaka, said Sahat Zia Hero, a freelance photographer and Rohingya community leader.
"We are very happy to see the Bangladeshi people's wholehearted support for us during our national crisis, and it's a great pleasure to see the donations from the Rohingya refugees," said TIKA's Bangladesh Coordinator Şevki Mert Barış.
"The donations were bought with a small amount of money contributed by the refugees living in camps who are generally dependant on international aid and other Rohingyas living in different parts of the world," he said.
He added that the Rohingya donation carries the persecuted people's profound love and solidarity for Türkiye, saying that on the fifth day, they were expecting to dispatch 7 to 8 tons of necessary items from Bangladesh to the disaster-ravaged Turkish provinces.
"It is our goodwill gesture to the Turkish people, a token of love for the brothers and sisters in Türkiye who are undergoing difficulties,” Hero told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) by phone.
"We can feel the pain of being homeless, and we call on everyone to stand by the victims with whatever means they can,” he said, adding that Türkiye was one of the primary aid providers to the Rohingya when they fled violence in Myanmar.
Bangladesh has been hosting more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims in crowded camps in the southern district of Cox’s Bazar. Of them, nearly 750,000 crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar launched a military offensive against the minority group in August 2017.
