Emergency assistance needed for relocation of Kanhtautgyi IDP camp

By DMG 21 Feb 2022

DMG Newsroom
21 February 2022, Myebon

Emergency assistance is needed to relocate a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) at a football field in Alepai ward of Kanhtautgyi town, in Arakan State’s Myebon Township, according to camp officials.

Townspeople informed the IDPs to leave the football field by February 26 to make way for a stadium. Ko Aung Win Mrat, an information officer for the IDP camp, said relocation of the IDPs to Ywa Thit ward remains difficult.

“UNHCR [the UN refugee agency] has provided timber and bamboo to build a camp at the new location. But we need help with relocation and construction costs, and land rent,” he told DMG.

Ko Aung Win Mrat said two acres of land had been leased for the displaced people to live at in the new location, adding that the landowner had asked for K2 million a year, and that some of the required funds were currently being borrowed from pawn shops in the town.

“When there is no more fighting, people no longer focus on the IDPs. There is a lack of stable jobs and a lack of income in the IDP camp, which makes it very difficult for the IDPs to relocate to a new site,” he said.

Only 40 tents have been completed at the relocation site, and the new IDP camp is currently inaccessible regarding electricity and water hookups, according to camp officials.

Ma Hnin Aye Soe, a resident of the Kanhtautgyi IDP camp, said that although they wanted to return home, they were working in the downtown area for fear of explosive remnants of war (ERWs) in the jungle.

“We get about K6,000 [$3.38] a day when there are jobs for us. When we work and earn some money, we have to buy necessary things,” she said.

The Kanhtautgyi IDP camp is home to 690 displaced people of 182 households, from Nyaungkan and Hin Khayaw villages in Myebon Township, and Hsin Oo Daik, Dar Lat and Thayetpin Chaung villages in Ann Township.