UNHCR builds nearly 300 shelters for Muslim IDPs in Sittwe and Kyaukphyu

By Admin 27 Apr 2023

DMG Newsroom
27 April 2023, Sittwe

In 2022, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reconstructed 292 shelters in four camps for Muslim internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State’s Sittwe and Kyaukphyu townships, the UN refugee agency said in a statement on Thursday.

A total of 2,600 families benefited from the works and now have a safe and dignified space to live, the UNHCR said.

“Shelter interventions like these are not intended to be long-term, but remain necessary to ensure that displaced people are adequately protected until real, sustainable, and dignified solutions are identified,” the UNHCR statement said.

Muslim IDPs at the Kyauktalone displacement camp in Kyaukphyu said they have received shelters and household utensils provided by the UNHCR.

“The UNHCR built 50 temporary shelters and each shelter measures about 30 feet in length and 45 feet in width. The UNHCR supplied us with tarpaulins and household utensils,” said U Maw Ni, a Muslim man living at the Kyauktalone IDP camp.

Muslim IDPs say UNHCR only provides tarpaulins and does not build houses in some displacement camps in Sittwe Township, where there are more than 107,000 IDPs, so they need assistance.

“The UNHCR didn’t build shelters at displacement camps, but it constructed shelters in some Muslim villages,” said a Muslim IDP man from Bawdupha displacement camp in Sittwe Township.

More than 100,000 Muslims in Sittwe, Myebon, Pauktaw, Kyaukphyu townships were forced from their homes to displacement camps due to intercommunal conflicts in 2012.

Authorities have restricted them from travelling within and out of Arakan State. Muslims say the travel ban robs them of their rights to work and receive healthcare services, among other opportunities denied.