On late Saturday, over 250 Rohingya refugees were rendered homeless as more than 50 shanties were destroyed in fire. Vowing to extend full cooperation in building shelters for the affected Rohingya community, the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) called on the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR to provide substantial humanitarian assistance to these vulnerable refugees.
NEW DELHI – Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) has demanded the government to reconstruct the Rohingya refugee camp in the Madanpur Khadar area of New Delhi, which was gutted down in a massive fire on Saturday night (June 12).
A delegation of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, comprising its all India secretaries Malik Motasim Khan and Shafi Madani as well as volunteers subsequently visited the gutted camp.
Speaking after the visit, Motasim Khan said, “The Rohingya refugees, who were already living in their temporary shelters and shanties in extreme poverty, facing hardship, were devastated in the massive fire. Now they have no clothes to wear, no house to live in and they are forced to live under the open sky in the hot sun and rainy night.”
The temporary camp had about 55-60 shanties, housing around 300 refugees. They informed the delegation that they were repeatedly threatened by the administration or officials to vacate the land. But they are all forced to stay there because they have no alternative place to shift.
“All of a sudden the fire has destroyed everything including clothes, foods, money etc,” they said.
JIH said that they have arranged breakfast for the victims in the early morning and it is also arranging clothes, burqas and chadors for women.
Khan said that the refugees living in the camp had valid refugee cards, issued by the government of India.
Khan demanded the government to arrange safe and secure homes for them so that such incidents would not be repeated in the future.
Vowing to extend full cooperation in building shelters for them, the JIH has also called on the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR to provide substantial humanitarian assistance to these vulnerable refugees.
Arif Nadvi and Aamir Jamal Falahi were also part of the delegation.