UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency has relocated some 1,700 new refugees to a government-allocated site in south-eastern Bangladesh, decongesting existing facilities in Kutupalong and giving them a home after weeks on the move.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is deeply saddened by reports of a new shipwreck in the Bay of Bengal this morning in which at least four Rohingya refugees died when their boat capsized close to the southern Bangladesh shore. Others who were injured have been taken to local hospitals for immediate treatment.

UNHCR has just completed the first phase of Rohingya refugee family counting, where more than half a million refugees from Myanmar have so far been counted. Going from shelter to shelter, more than 100 UNHCR-hired enumerators have so far gathered data on more than 120,000 families. In the innovative and revealing family counting exercise, UNHCR teams found that one-third of the families are vulnerable.

UNHCR and partners built 1,573 latrines and 200 tube wells. This represents over 78,000 who have access to latrines and 100,000 who have access to water. UNHCR continues to lead the coordination among WASH actors at the field level in both Kutupalong (including in the extension site) and Nayapara, providing technical guidance and support to improve compliance with WASH standards.

Over the past 10 days UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has received reports of some 30 improvised rafts arriving from Myanmar, carrying more than a thousand people. Unable to pay for the crossing, refugees are building rafts from whatever material they can get their hands on – mostly bamboo poles and empty jerry cans tied together with rope and covered with plastic sheets. More than 200 Rohingya refugees are known to have drowned in shipwrecks and boat incidents since the start of the crisis on 25 August.

UNHCR is expanding its community outreach into the new settlements and makeshift sites by identifying and setting up networks of trained community outreach members (COMs) to strengthen two-way communication, follow-up on persons with specific needs, carry out community-led solutions, and engage in prevention.

According to WHO, diphtheria is “rapidly spreading among Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar.” On 6 December, WHO warned that more than 110 suspected cases, including 6 deaths, have been clinically diagnosed by health partners, including Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC). Diphtheria is a highly infectious respiratory disease that spreads through droplet and can be deadly, particularly in overcrowded areas with no proper sanitation system. WHO is working with the Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), UNICEF, and partners to contain the spread of the highly infectious respiratory disease through effective treatment and adequate prevention. For its part, UNHCR immediately made part of the Rubber Plantation Transit Centre available to serve as a treatment and isolation facility for patients under MSF management. Sixty-eight patients were transferred on 9 December 2017. The outbreak has impacted the upcoming relocation of some 10,000 refugees currently in border areas in Bandarban district; their relocation will be delayed to allow for the vaccination of children.

Registration, including birth registration, for all refugees is critical. UNHCR’s family counting exercise which began on 3 October has now been completed. UNHCR teams continue to count new arrivals and update the data for families who may move within settlements. In parallel, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) is conducting biometrics registration for some 830,000 individuals, including new arrivals. UNHCR will work jointly with authorities to update data records and share with the authorities complementary data which UNHCR gathered on the location of individuals and on family composition. This is expected to result in good data set that will enable UNHCR and the authorities to better plan together, with other partners.

As part of their winterization activities, UNHCR and its partners are continuing to distribute shawls and sweaters as the temperatures decrease. A total of 20,458 shawls were distributed as of 20 December. UNHCR is also distributing, through its partners, sweaters for children under five. In Nayapara, the military agreed for UNHCR to use its distribution point, which will increase the outreach from 526 families to 1,200 families during each distribution that takes place four times a week.

The second phase of UNHCR’s shelter strategy is underway in preparation for the monsoon season. Since November, UNHCR and its partners has distributed some 27,600 upgraded shelter kits, composed of bamboo poles, ropes, tools, and tarpaulins, to help refugees build sturdier homes. Since November 2017, over 27,500 kits were distributed. In four days only, UNHCR’s partner ADRA completed the distribution for more than 2,600 families in Charmakul / Karantoli. In addition, UNHCR continues to collaborate with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) to identify areas, which have the highest risk of landslides and to mobilize partners to prepare the sites for the upcoming rains.