Rohingya Infants’ Health Issue

Abstract

1.1 million Rohingya people, who have been subject to ethnic cleansing, systematic discrimination, and genocide for decades in the Rakhine state of Myanmar, are currently residing in Bangladesh. 55% of Rohingya people are made up of children and there is no question about the magnitude of these children’s healthcare problems. The host country Bangladesh is burdened with around 1.21 billion US dollars every year for maintaining the expenses of the Rohingya refugees which is huge for a developing country. As of the UNICEF report, the number of newborn Rohingya infants is more than 60 per day in the refugee camps of Bangladesh. Due to lack of adequate nutrition, vaccination of the infectious diseases, overcrowding, inadequate sanitary system, and lack of access to pure drinking water the infectious diseases are highly prevalent among these refugee children. These Rohingya children witnessed one of the world’s biggest diphtheria outbreaks. ARI and Diarrhea among children are alarmingly spreading that made the treatment of the diseases daunting. In this context, the paper focused on the possible reasons for the infectious diseases outbreak in the refugee camps and analyzed the role of the host government and NGOs in limiting their spread. This paper also focused on finding the possible initiates the host government and NGOs concerned can take to limit the death of Rohingya children in the camps. Secondary data has been used to conduct the research.