Sikh volunteers reach Bangladesh-Myanmar border to help Rohingya refugees

Members of a Sikh organisation, Khalsa Aid International, have reached the Bangladesh-Myanmar border with a goal to provide relief to the Rohingya Muslim families fleeing Myanmar.

A team of volunteers from Khalsa Aid International arrived at the border on September 10, 2017. A post the volunteers uploaded on Facebook described the situation as extremely desperate and said,

We will be launching a major relief operation. We need your support.

While speaking with The Indian Express, Managing Director of Khalsa Aid India, Amarpreet Singh, said,

It was our first day here today and we did a pre-assessment before launching a major relief operation. We had come prepared for providing relief to some 50,000 people, but there are more than three lakh refugees here. They are living without water, food, clothes, and shelter. It is miserable, to say the least.

Amarpreet is in Teknaf, a border town in Bangladesh, where the refugees have no shelter from the continuous rain. Khalsa Aid aims to provide them with langar and shelter. They wish to provide them with tarpaulins as well but the arrangements might take some time as they had not expected these many refugees.

Attempting to make all the necessary arrangements as soon as possible, they have also launched a campaign called Rohingya Refugees Relief to collect donations. The post uploaded on Just Giving says,

Khalsa Aid has launched an appeal to set up an urgent relief programme. Please donate with an open heart, thank you.

The United Nations has criticised Myanmar along with its state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi for gross human rights violations, causing nearly 2.70 lakh Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.

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