More than 15,000 Rohingya refugees are currently stuck in a border zone no-man鈥檚 land between Myanmar and Bangladesh without adequate sanitation, food and water.
鈥淪uddenly, we just can't take thousands of people in,鈥� Major Ashik bin Jalil of the Bangladesh Armed Forces told CTV鈥檚 Peter Akman. 鈥淚t takes time.鈥�
An estimated 600,000 Rohingya have now entered Bangladesh from Myanmar, fleeing violence that the United Nations has called 鈥渢extbook ethnic cleansing.鈥�
While many of them are now in crowded refugee camps inside Bangladesh, those along the border are being forced to wait in limbo in overcrowded, filthy conditions as Bangladesh and humanitarian agencies scramble to create more spaces for them.
"This cannot go on,鈥� said J.J. Simon, who works with UNICEF. 鈥淚t is a paddy field, with water around, there is no sanitation, there is no clean water, there is no food."
With journalists banned from the border zone, aid workers showed pictures of the squalid no man鈥檚 land. More than half of the 15,000 stranded people are children, they say. Many are believed to be sick and starving.
鈥淭hey are suffering,鈥� a Rohingya refugee told Akman. 鈥淭he heat is killing them slowly.鈥�
Family members of those who are stranded say they have waited three days to bring their loved ones food and water.
Aid groups are getting in, bringing just enough supplies to them alive. Those too sick to wait are carried out and transported to a hospital two hours away in the coastal city of Cox鈥檚 Bazar.
One of those people is Arifa Khatun and her nine-month-old baby, who was badly burned when Myanmar鈥檚 military allegedly torched their village.
"I was outside when soldiers set the fire,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 ran in and pulled her out just in time."
Myanmar鈥檚 government has denied the veracity of horror stories like Khatun鈥檚, but Imam Hosen says he has proof of the Myanmar military鈥檚 atrocities in the form of a soldier鈥檚 bullet that is still lodged in his leg.
"We all woke up to gunfire,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 was running trying to get away when I was shot.鈥�
The Bangladesh Armed Forces has not said how long this blockade will last: it all depends, they say, on how many Rohingya keep coming and how fast they can build more refugee camps.
With a report from CTV鈥檚 Peter Akman in Bangladesh
