After an investigation, the Bangladeshi government has declared the fire that broke out in a Rohingya refugee camp on March 5^th an act of “planned sabotage.” In a report based on the eyewitness accounts of over 150 people, senior district government official Abu Sufian said the fire’s multiple simultaneous ignition points prove that it was a premeditated attack, suggesting that community-based gangs may have set the fires to establish superiority within the camp.

“At least five places caught fire within a short period of time,” Sufian said. According to Al Jazeera, the fire destroyed nearly 2,800 shelters and over 90 facilities at the Balukhali camp in Cox Bazar, at Myanmar’s border; more than a million Rohingya refugees live at Balukhali, most fleeing Myanmar after the major military crackdown against their people in 2017. No casualties were immediately reported, but 12,000 of those refugees have been left homeless. “The day before the fire, there were shootings and clashes over dominance in that camp,” Sufian notes. Volunteers responded to the fire alongside their partners, but “[s]ome people in the camps restricted refugees from dousing it, allowing the fire to burn the shelters.”

The government is recommending the investigation continue.

The Balukhali fire is not an isolated incident. Fires often break out in Bangladesh’s crowded refugee camps, where shelters are made mostly of bamboo and thin plastic sheets. One fire in March 2021 killed 15 and destroyed 10,000 homes. As more refugees flee Myanmar and flood to the camps, the competition for limited resources and worsening living conditions have made the refugees increasingly reactionary and violent, leading to a rise in crime. The oppression in Myanmar, meanwhile, continues to get worse with no signs of stopping, causing refugees to lose hope that they can ever return home.

Though Bangladesh plays a vital role in housing these refugees, its inability to handle the intake is forcing the migrants it shelters to endure crime, danger, and cramped and unhealthy living conditions. Bangladesh needs more resources to provide stable housing, food, medical aid, and other necessities to the refugees it’s promising to protect. The international community must step in to provide Bangladesh with money, medical supplies, and possibly even people who specialize in refugee settlement and aid to ensure the country can provide sufficient amounts of safe refugee centers and housing.

The crises in Myanmar and Bangladesh are not waning, and more refugees leave Myanmar every day. The international community must assist in efforts to house them and keep them safe.