Rohingya refugees include 14,000 lone children, Bangladesh says

Nearly 14,000 children who have lost one or both parents are among the more than half a million Rohingya refugees who crossed in Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar, an official said on Sunday.

The UN says 536,000 mainly Rohingya refugees have arrived from Myanmar’s strife-torn Rakhine state since August 25 – most of them children.

Bangladesh’s social services department said 13,751 children without a parent or parents were identified in a survey of the crowded refugee camps on its border, where charities warn that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding.

“Most them said they lost one or both parents in the violence in Rakhine,” said Pritam Kumar Chowdhury, a department deputy director. “Others said they didn’t know what happened to their parents, and they came to Bangladesh with relatives.”

The UN has described the violence in Rakhine as a textbook case of ethnic cleansing, with displaced Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh describing whole villages being razed, gang rapes and massacres.