COVID-19: First Rohingya refugee dies in Bangladesh

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - An elderly Rohingya man has died in Bangladesh, at one of the largest refugee camps in the world, an official confirmed on Tuesday.

Mohammad Shamsu Douza, a top official at the office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner in Cox's Bazar, on the country’s southeastern coast, confirmed to Anadolu Agency that the man passed away as of Sunday.

He said the Rohingya man had been undergoing treatment for coronavirus symptoms at an isolation center for COVID-19 treatment.

Healthcare workers sent samples from the deceased to the capital Dhaka for testing and got confirmation that he had contracted the novel coronavirus, Douza added.

There are currently 29 Rohingya refugees in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar who have tested positive for COVID-19, and they are being treated at an isolation centre, he said.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, fled neighboring Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017, pushing the number of the persecuted people in Bangladesh above 1.2 million.