救援团体为逃离若开邦暴力的难民处境感到担心

International refugee agencies and relief workers in Bangladesh and Myanmar are concerned about worsening conditions for the thousands of people who have fled sectarian violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Vivian Tan, the Asia press director for the U.N. refugee agency, is in Bangladesh and told VOA’s Burmese service that there is a shortage of shelter for the more than 18,000 people who have fled over the border from Myanmar.

The International Organization for Migration and other aid groups have told VOA’s Bangla service that as many as 20,000 more people are staged just inside Myanmar, hoping to enter Bangladesh.

In Myanmar, some communities are packed with internally displaced people, and relief workers fear that the lack of food safety and personal hygiene facilities could spread infectious diseases, a VOA journalist reported.

People began flowing out of their villages in Rakhine on August 25, after a group of Muslim insurgents launched a series of attacks on police posts. There are reports that Myanmar security authorities responded with brutal raids on Rohingya villages.

The attacks, the worst violence in the region in at least five years, sent both Rohingya, who are Muslims, and people from the Buddhist majority scrambling for safety.