‘We Have Lost Everything’: Massive Fire Breaks Out at the World’s Largest Refugee Camp

When flames engulfed the makeshift shelter that Ansiya called home on Sunday, destroying all her food and warm clothing, she felt a twisted sense of deja vu. It wasn’t the first time that flames have wreaked havoc on her life.

Ansiya, who only goes by one name, fled Myanmar in 2017, when the military was razing entire villages home to Rohingya Muslims to the ground. The United Nations described the scorched earth campaign as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing,” while the Rohingya were forced to seek refuge across the region.

Over a million Rohingya, like Ansiya, now live in Cox’s Bazar district in southern Bangladesh, which houses the world’s largest refugee camp. But on Sunday, Ansiya and thousands of others lost even their temporary homes to the familiar wrath of flames. 

“In 2017, the Myanmar government was burning our villages. In Bangladesh, it’s the same situation,” the 30-year-old told VICE World News. “That’s why we’re feeling very sad and angry in the refugee camps.”

At around 2.45 p.m, a fire broke out at Camp 11, part of the Kutupalong camp and expanded sites in Cox’s Bazar district. The flames were put out in hours and no casualties were reported other than minor injuries, local authorities said. But the fire destroyed some 2,000 shelters, leaving 12,000 refugees without a roof over their heads.  

Rohimullah, a 45-year-old resident at the camp who goes by one name, said he ran for safety after spotting the fire from a distance. Amid the chaos, he was separated from some of his family members—some of whom he was unable to locate until the next day. 

“We found some of them, but not all my family members are included,” he told VICE World News on Monday. “We have lost everything in the fire. We also don’t have enough food.”

Two days after the fire, the cause still remains unclear. Bangladesh authorities have detained a teenager for his alleged involvement, local media reported. A report released last month by the Ministry of Defense said there were 222 fire incidents between January 2021 and December 2022, over 60 of which were arson. In March 2021, at least 15 people died in a blaze that tore through the settlement, destroying some 10,000 homes. 

Besides the shelters, the fire burned down key infrastructure in the camp, including several learning centers, health facilities, and water networks serving up to 16,000 people, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said in a press release on Monday.

The humanitarian aid group said they were helping to distribute tents, blankets, and food to those who have been displaced by the fire. The UN said they’ve deployed 90 community health workers to support survivors of the fire in dealing with trauma. 

“It’s a concern, really, because people have no shelters and no food, nothing left,” Hrusikesh Harichandan, the IFRC sub-delegation head, told VICE World News. “All of us have been working hard to minimize their suffering.”

The fire has sparked renewed concern about the safety of infrastructure in the camps. Shafiur Rahman, a journalist and filmmaker who focuses on Rohingya issues, points to the flammable materials used to construct temporary shelters at the camps. 

“Bangladesh does not allow any permanent structures in the camps,” he told VICE World News. “All of these shelters are made out of bamboo and tarpaulin which are, of course, simply not able to deal with fires.”

The Bangladeshi government has defended the use of makeshift shelters, insisting that all homes remain temporary. Besides being made from flammable material, the shelters, often perched on muddy hills, also fall victim to heavy rains during monsoon season. In 2021, at least five people were killed in landslides, and a child was swept away by flooding. In response, aid groups are helping to reinforce the bamboo shelters with steel footings. 

As thick gray smoke billowed across Camp 11 on Sunday, photos show refugees gingerly crossing over the barbed wire that separates the camps. A section of it had been torn down as people scrambled for safety. 

Spanning over 100 kilometers, the fence is part of a controversial project launched by the Bangladesh government in 2019, with Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal claiming they were “erected to check the worsening situation of law and order in the camps.”

But rights groups have warned that fencing refugees in with barbed wire can prove dangerous during emergencies. International aid agencies said in a statement that the barbed wire fencing surrounding the shelters had blocked the refugees’ escape while delaying fire services—a claim that Bangladeshi authorities have denied.

"Nothing justifies constructing barbed wire fences around places where human beings live," Yanghee Lee, former UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, said in May 2021.

As Sunday’s tragedy adds to a string of fires that have left Rohingya fearing for their safety in the camps, Rahman says it’s imperative that the Bangladesh government identifies the source of the fires, and how to prevent future ones. 

“When they say they ‘investigate,’ what they do is they investigate in terms of how many people have been affected, how many shelters burned down,” he said. “​​But they never come up with anything that might be helpful in preventing future fires.”

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Ro Maung Hla Myint (Arfat) contributed reporting.