06, Jan 2018 | CJP Team

The Guardian reported that more than 48,000 children will be born this year in the crowded refugee camps that are home to those of the Rohingya minority who have fled Myanmar. According to Save the Children, around 130 live births are expected daily in these camps in 2018, and newborns are at the risk of being malnourished, or contracting ailments like measles, diphtheria, and cholera. The Guardian noted that this came after a World Health Organization (WHO) report indicated that basic services in Bangladesh’s refugee camps are extremely overburdened. According to the Guardian, the overcrowding in Cox’s Bazar, where the refugee camps are located, has resulted in minimal space to establish health centres, along with poor sanitation that has increased the risk of disease. Daphne Cook of Save the Children told the Guardian, “Because the movement of people into the area happened so quickly, people just built up houses everywhere. What that means is a lot of houses are really far away from toilets, which creates huge issues with open defecation, drainage, and huge queues for toilets,” noting that newborns’ “bodies aren’t able to cope with even the most simple infections, so there’s a real risk, if babies get any kind of water-borne disease or diarrhoea, they can suffer from malnutrition”. The Guardian reported that just 22% of births occur in health facilities, with two-thirds of pregnant women lacking access to gynaecological and obstetrical care. Moreover, numerous women cannot breastfeed due to poor nutrition or the lack of privacy, the Guardian said.