Blaze at Refugee Camp: Around 600 children still missing

Rohingya parents are enduring an agonising wait as they hope to be reunited with their children who were separated in the massive fire that raged through four camps on Monday in Balukhali of Cox's Bazar's Ukhiya upazila.

The primary registration of missing children rose to 600 while some children have started reuniting with their families at camp-8(e), according to a joint assessment of 27 NGOs working at the camps.

The rapid assessment says 66 percent of the four camps have been affected by the blaze, while 10,000 shelters -- including medical care facilities, learning centres, women and child support centres -- were razed to the ground by the inferno.

Yesterday, this correspondent came across the "Lost and Missing Child Information Centre" at Balukhali camp set up by Brac, where parents crowded to report their missing children.

At the centre, this correspondent talked to Mohammad Azmat of camp-8(e).

"When the fire broke out, we ran for our lives. But my seven-year-old son has been missing since. I registered his name here, in the hopes of getting him back," said Azmat, who was one of those in the queue to report their missing children.

"Without my child, I can't even focus on rebuilding my shelter," he added.

An NGO official, preferring not to be named, told The Daily Star that 150 such information centres have been set up across the four affected camps, where parents come to submit their child's name every day.

Humanitarian organisations, including Brac, International Refugee Council and Danish Refugee Council, are working and coordinating on the ground to generate information about missing children.

Apart from this, child protection agencies established child-friendly spaces to receive lost children.

As of Wednesday, 24 children were received by child protection units and 17 were reunited with their families, a camp-in-charge who wished to remain anonymous told The Daily Star.

According to the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner's office, the fire that raged in four camps on Monday claimed 11 lives, burnt down 10,000 shanties and displaced around 50,000 people.