Global aid charity MSF urges Bangladesh Govt. to lift ban to provide healthcare to refugees

Naypyidaw (Myanmar), Aug.5 (ANI): International charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has appealed to the Bangladesh Government to withdraw its decision to ban their services in that country's Cox Bazaar district so that it can provide proper healthcare to Bangladeshi and Burmese Muslim Rohingya refugees.

MSF representative Christopher Lockyear said that if the ban is not lifted, some 1,00,000 people, both Bangladeshis and Burmese Rohingya refugees, would suffer for want of better healthcare.

The charity runs a maternity care centre and supports malnourished children in the Cox Bazar District that borders Burma, the BBC reports.

The authorities had earlier this week ordered three agencies-the MSF, Action Against Hunger (ACF) and the UK-based agency Muslim Aid UK, to stop work, as they were found to be operating beyond their mandate by giving aid to refugees who were in the country illegally.

"We have dozens of people in our in patient care. Seven women in the maternity unit and one of them is currently labouring. Where do they go it we have to close our activities?" Lockyear told the BBC.

The charities were providing healthcare, food and water to thousands of refugees and Bangladeshis in south-eastern Bangladesh.

"We would like to be able to open a dialogue and [see] how we can resolve the situation," Lockyear said. (ANI)