Turkey to build shelters for 100,000 Rohingya

Turkey would build shelters for 100,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, an official of Turkey's state-run aid body said on Sunday.

According to a press release, Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency's (TIKA) Bangladesh Coordinator Ahmet Refik Çetinkaya held a meeting with Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya.

"Turkey will soon provide 10,000 packets of aid [to Rohingya Muslims]," Çetinkaya told the minister.

He said Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdağ would visit Bangladesh.

Since Aug. 25, more than 429,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN's migration agency.

In total, more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees are now believed to be in Bangladesh, including the arrivals since Aug. 25.

The refugees are fleeing a fresh security operation in which security forces and Buddhist mobs have killed men, women and children, looted homes and torched Rohingya villages. According to Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali, around 3,000 Rohingya have been killed in the crackdown.

Turkey has been at the forefront of providing aid to Rohingya refugees and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan raised the issue with the UN.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.