UNHCR to distribute winter aid for Rohingya refugees

The UN Refugee Agency will begin distributing warm clothing to Rohingya refugees sheltered in Cox's Bazar of Bangladesh from Sunday, the organisation has said.

Almost 200,000 items of clothing comprising of 170,000 warm shawls for adults and 15,000 sweaters for children under two years will be distributed, said a press release issued today.

Until today, over 800,000 Rohingya refugees have been registered. They are currently living in camps in Cox's Bazar, fleeing from persecution in their homeland in Rakhine, Myanmar.

Children, who are 55 per cent of the refugee population, are particularly vulnerable and nearly ten percent of the refugees are either disabled, have serious medical conditions or older persons at risk, said UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch.

Since the beginning of the crisis, UNHCR has organised 17 airlifts, bring more than 2,100 metric tons of aid relief items, worth over US$9 million. Additional aid was shipped by sea in three separate consignments.