Bangladesh police yesterday evicted Rohingya refugees from overcrowded roadside camps and farmland as aid groups scrambled to find emergency shelter for tens of thousands living outdoors in squalid conditions.
Around 421,000 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh since August 25, the UN says, overwhelming the ill-equipped refugee camps along the border.
Aid groups have warned of an unfolding humanitarian crisis in the camps, where mobs of half-starving people rush passing food trucks in violent 
stampedes for rations.
Authorities are struggling to cope and those left to fend for themselves have taken refuge in roadside shanties or clearing land on hills and farms for tents.
The government has been trying to herd refugees into designated areas, fearful that nearby cities could be overwhelmed if they are left unchecked.
Police yesterday cleared squatters and dismantled shanties around Kutupalong, one of the largest camps where the roads are choked with refugees and long queues of traffic snake from aid centres.
Amina Khatun, 70, made her home under a makeshift tent in a rubber plantation before police cleared her out. She took refuge in a nearby school but was moved on again.
“We’re running around like headless chickens. They are telling us to go away now. Why?” she said.
Using megaphones, police warned refugees squatting on roadsides they could be arrested if they refused to move.
“The police told us to go, but how can I move again so soon with the kids and belongings in this rain?” said Khadiza Begum, a widowed mother of three, gesturing to the monsoon downpour.
Water pumps have been installed around Kutupalong, with concrete rings stockpiled for latrines.
The government is building a massive new camp nearby to shelter 400,000 people, but the UN says it will take time before it is equipped with tents, toilets and medical facilities.
“The work is ongoing and some newly-arriving families have moved in,” UN refugee agency spokeswoman Vivian Tan said.
“As the influx of refugees continues, we are seeing massive humanitarian needs in Bangladesh across the board.”
Bangladesh has also launched a birth control drive in its overcrowded refugee camps, an official said yesterday, fearing a population boom would worsen the humanitarian crisis unfolding along its border.
Family planning teams have been deployed to offer advice and distribute condoms and other contraceptives throughout its ill-equipped camps, which have been overwhelmed by the arrival of 420,000 Rohingya refugees since August 25.
Authorities have already identified 70,000 new or expectant mothers among the latest influx from Myanmar, and fear without intervention the population pressures could worsen in coming months as the crisis drags on.
“They have six, seven, eight, nine, 10 children,” said Pintu Kanti Bhattacharjee, head of the government’s family planning department in Cox’s Bazar district where the camps are 
located.
“We are very worried. If they are here for another six months to a year, another 20,000 
children will be born.”
Mothers with newborns, pregnant women and enormous families with more than 10 children are not uncommon among the camps.
Bangladesh is building a large new camp to accommodate hundreds of thousands of these new arrivals fleeing violence across the border, but space is stretched very thin.
Whole families are sleeping outdoors and squatting in farmland, roadsides and vacant buildings, with competition for food, shelter and other essentials intensifying as the number of new arrivals climbs.
Bhattacharjee said officials on the ground were “counselling” new Rohingya arrivals about family planning, a new concept for many, and trying to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
Officials on the ground were distributing contraceptives to men and women with mixed 
results, he added.
Mujibur Rahman, a Rohingya man in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia, was open to the condoms and birth control pills he received in a handout.
“These will definitely 
help us,” the 25-year-old said.
But others were not so sure.
“I thought it was a food pack,” said Mohammad Mostafiz, a 40-year-old Rohingya man, who has two wives and 14 children.
“It is our religious duty to have children. Using medicines to prevent childbirth is a sin. I don’t think my family will use this stuff.”
Bangladesh has been praised for its efforts to handle the growing crisis, but aid groups warn the situation remains dire.


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