KALADAN NEWS

Date: April 18, 2005

 

Rohingya Children drown in a Dam in Bangladesh

 

Teknaf, April 18: Two Rohingya refugee children died after they fell into a lake beside Nayapara camp under Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh, said Ahmed, a refugee from the camp.

 

They are identified as Deen Mohammed, 5, son of Kabir Ahmed, bearing refugee number (MRC-36803), shed No. 74/4 from Block-H and Mohammed Ismael, 4, son of Shabbir Ahmed, MRC-30585, shed No. 77/3 of the same block, Nayapara camp No.2, he further said.

 

The children were going to a nearby dam of the refugee camp together with other refugee children to play with water without the knowledge of their parents. Suddenly they have drowned into the 4ft deep water while they were unconsciously playing with water. After a few minutes later, some children were crying out that Deen Mohammed and Ismael have drowned and dying,” seeing their dipping in the water. On hearing the hue and cry, nearby people including parents of the children rushed to the spot and saved them from the water, said another refugee.

 

Then the children were taken to the Clinic of the camp with their parents but medics were unable to save them, as the children were not allowed to get admission at the clinic. After half an hour of their arrival at the veranda of the clinic, the children were pronounced dead, while medics gave less attention to the cases and that was about 3:00pm of April 16, 2005, he added.

 

The medics said, “We have no adequate medicine supply from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). So, we are unable to save these unfortunate children.”

 

The Camp-in-Charge has treated the death as a tragic incident and instructed to refugees to bury them as early as possible. In the same day, their parents together with other refugees buried them in the refugee cemetery nearby the camp.

 

Camp-in-Charge said, "All parents with young children should carry out checks on the safety of water in their camps in the light of the tragic circumstances that have befallen these families."

 

Mother of Ismael said, “My son is the dearest one among the children that I have. I always watch him very carefully but today while I’m going to napping he gets magic drowned. I never forget him though he leaves me forever.” ##

 

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